§. 25. God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them
reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience. The
earth and all that is therein is given to men for the support and comfort of
their being. And though all the fruits it naturally produces, and beasts it
feeds, belong to mankind in common, as they are produced by the spontaneous
hand of Nature, and nobody has originally a private dominion exclusive of the
rest of mankind in any of them, as they are thus in their natural state, yet
being given for the use of men, there must of necessity be a means to
appropriate them some way or other before they can be of any use, or at all
beneficial, to any particular men. The fruit or venison which nourishes the
wild Indian, who knows no enclosure, and is still a tenant in common, must be
his, and so his — i.e., a part of him, that another can no longer have any
right to it before it can do him any good for the support of his life.
