G6G T1IE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which isacquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of manysuccessive generations, can sleep a single night in security.He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom,though he never provoked, he can never appease, and fromwhose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful armof the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it. Theacquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, ne-cessarily requires the establishment of civil government.Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds thevalue of two or three days’ labour, civil government is notso necessary.

Civil government supposes a certain subordination. Butas the necessity of civil government gradually grows up withthe acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causeswhich naturally introduce subordination gradually grow upwith the growth of that valuable property.

The causes or circumstances which naturally introducesubordination, or which naturally, and antecedent to any civilinstitution, give some men some superiority over the greaterpart of their brethren, seem to be four in number.

The first of those causes or circumstances is the superiorityflf personal qualifications, of strength, beauty, and agility ofbody; of wisdom and virtue, of prudence, justice, fortitude,and moderation of mind. The qualifications of the body, un-less supported by those of the mind, can give little authorityin any period of society, lie is a very strong man, who bymere strength of body can force two weak ones to obey him.The qualifications of the mind can alone give very great au-thority. They are, however, invisible qualities; always dis-putable, and generally disputed. No society, whether barba-rous or civilized, has ever found it convenient to settle therules of precedency of rank and subordination, according tothose invisible qualities; but according to something that ismore plain and palpable.

The second of those causes or circumstances is the supe-riority of age. An old man, provided his age is not so far ad-vanced as to give suspicion of dotage, is everywhere morerespected than a young man of equal rank, fortune, and abi-lities. Among nations of hunters, such as the native tribes ofNorth America , age is the sole foundation of rank and pre-cedency. Among them father is the appellation of a superior;brother, of an equal; and son, of an inferior. In the most