CHAP. IV.

Of SLAVERY.


Sec. 22. THE natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior
power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of
man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of
man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that
established, by consent, in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of
any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact,
according to the trust put in it. Freedom then is not what Sir Robert
Filmer tells us, Observations, A. 55. a liberty for every one to do what
he lists, to live as he pleases, and not to be tied by any laws: but
freedom of men under government is, to have a standing rule to live by,
common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power
erected in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, where the
rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain,
unknown, arbitrary will of another man: as freedom of nature is, to be
under no other restraint but the law of nature.
Sec. 23. This freedom from absolute, arbitrary power, is so necessary
to, and closely joined with a man's preservation, that he cannot part
with it, but by what forfeits his preservation and life together: for a
man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his own
consent, enslave himself to any one, nor put himself under the absolute,
arbitrary power of another, to take away his life, when he pleases. No
body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take
away his own life, cannot give another power over it. Indeed, having by
his fault forfeited his own life, by some act that deserves death; he, to