§. 38. The same measures governed the possession of land, too. Whatsoever he
tilled and reaped, laid up and made use of before it spoiled, that was his
peculiar right; whatsoever he enclosed, and could feed and make use of, the
cattle and product was also his. But if either the grass of his enclosure
rotted on the ground, or the fruit of his planting perished without gathering
and laying up, this part of the earth, notwithstanding his enclosure, was still
to be looked on as waste, and might be the possession of any other. Thus, at
the beginning, Cain might take as much ground as he could till and make it his
own land, and yet leave enough to Abel's sheep to feed on: a few acres would
serve for both their possessions. But as families increased and industry
enlarged their stocks, their possessions enlarged with the need of them; but
yet it was commonly without any fixed property in the ground they made use of
till they incorporated, settled themselves together, and built cities, and
then, by consent, they came in time to set out the bounds of their distinct
territories and agree on limits between them and their neighbours, and by laws
within themselves settled the properties of those of the same society. For we
see that in that part of the world which was first inhabited, and therefore
like to be best peopled, even as low down as Abraham's time, they wandered with
their flocks and their herds, which was their substance, freely up and down
— and this Abraham did in a country where he was a stranger; whence it is
plain that, at least, a great part of the land lay in common, that the
inhabitants valued it not, nor claimed property in any more than they made use
of; but when there was not room enough in the same place for their herds to
feed together, they, by consent, as Abraham and Lot did (Gen. xiii. 5),
separated and enlarged their pasture where it best liked them. And for the same
reason, Esau went from his father and his brother, and planted in Mount Seir
(Gen. 36. 6).
