§. 59. This holds in all the laws a man is under, whether natural or civil. Is
a man under the law of Nature? What made him free of that law? what gave him a
free disposing of his property, according to his own will, within the compass
of that law? I answer, an estate wherein he might be supposed capable to know
that law, that so he might keep his actions within the bounds of it. When he
has acquired that state, he is presumed to know how far that law is to be his
guide, and how far he may make use of his freedom, and so comes to have it;
till then, somebody else must guide him, who is presumed to know how far the
law allows a liberty. If such a state of reason, such an age of discretion made
him free, the same shall make his son free too. Is a man under the law of
England? what made him free of that law — that is, to have the liberty to
dispose of his actions and possessions, according to his own will, within the
permission of that law? a capacity of knowing that law. Which is supposed, by
that law, at the age of twenty-one, and in some cases sooner. If this made the
father free, it shall make the son free too. Till then, we see the law allows
the son to have no will, but he is to be guided by the will of his father or
guardian, who is to understand for him. And if the father die and fail to
substitute a deputy in this trust, if he hath not provided a tutor to govern
his son during his minority, during his want of understanding, the law takes
care to do it: some other must govern him and be a will to him till he hath
attained to a state of freedom, and his understanding be fit to take the
government of his will. But after that the father and son are equally free, as
much as tutor and pupil, after nonage, equally subjects of the same law
together, without any dominion left in the father over the life, liberty, or
estate of his son, whether they be only in the state and under the law of
Nature, or under the positive laws of an established government.
