subject may be distinguished from that of a FATHER over his children, a
MASTER over his servant, a HUSBAND over his wife, and a LORD over his
slave. All which distinct powers happening sometimes together in the
same man, if he be considered under these different relations, it may
help us to distinguish these powers one from wealth, a father of a
family, and a captain of a galley.
Sect. 3. POLITICAL POWER, then, I take to be a RIGHT of making laws
with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the
regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the
community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the
common-wealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public
good.



C H A P. II.

Of the State of Nature.

Sect. 4. TO understand political power right, and derive it from its
original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that
is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of
their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of
the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of
any other man. A state also of equality, wherein all the power and
jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being
nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank,
promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of
the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without
subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all