origin from reason and reflection, than do those of the former,
which point all to a like end.

I need not mention the variations, which all the rules of
property receive from the finer turns and connexions of the
imagination, and from the subtilties and abstractions of law-
topics and reasonings. There is no possibility of reconciling
this observation to the notion of original instincts.

What alone will beget a doubt concerning the theory, on which I
insist, is the influence of education and acquired habits, by
which we are so accustomed to blame injustice, that we are not,
in every instance, conscious of any immediate reflection on the
pernicious consequences of it. The views the most familiar to us
are apt, for that very reason, to escape us; and what we have
very frequently performed from certain motives, we are apt
likewise to continue mechanically, without recalling, on every
occasion, the reflections, which first determined us. The
convenience, or rather necessity, which leads to justice is so
universal, and everywhere points so much to the same rules, that
the habit takes place in all societies; and it is not without
some scrutiny, that we are able to ascertain its true origin. The
matter, however, is not so obscure, but that even in common life
we have every moment recourse to the principle of public utility,
and ask, WHAT MUST BECOME OF THE WORLD, IF SUCH PRACTICES
PREVAIL? HOW COULD SOCIETY SUBSIST UNDER SUCH DISORDERS? Were the
distinction or separation of possessions entirely useless, can
any one conceive, that it ever should have obtained in society?

Thus we seem, upon the whole, to have attained a knowledge of the