§. 19. And here we have the plain difference between the state of Nature and
the state of war, which however some men have confounded, are as far distant as
a state of peace, goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservation; and a state of
enmity, malice, violence and mutual destruction are one from another. Men
living together according to reason without a common superior on earth, with
authority to judge between them, is properly the state of Nature. But force, or
a declared design of force upon the person of another, where there is no common
superior on earth to appeal to for relief, is the state of war; and it is the
want of such an appeal gives a man the right of war even against an aggressor,
though he be in society and a fellow-subject. Thus, a thief whom I cannot harm,
but by appeal to the law, for having stolen all that I am worth, I may kill
when he sets on me to rob me but of my horse or coat, because the law, which
was made for my preservation, where it cannot interpose to secure my life from
present force, which if lost is capable of no reparation, permits me my own
defence and the right of war, a liberty to kill the aggressor, because the
aggressor allows not time to appeal to our common judge, nor the decision of
the law, for remedy in a case where the mischief may be irreparable. Want of a
common judge with authority puts all men in a state of Nature; force without
right upon a man's person makes a state of war both where there is, and is not,
a common judge.
