The Origin of Duty and Right in Man, Considered (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1796. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... tara without comparison richer, than from the lawkk and marauding excursion, into which the buccaniers of the rights of man have inveigled their incautious retainers. What the excellent Bla&vlone has remarked of the ordinary conduct of mankind with respect: to the notion of the right of property, may be extended to their notion of right in geneial. There is nothing (fays he) "which so generally strikes the imagination, and "engages the affections of mankind, as the right "of property.--And yet there are very few, that "will give themselves the trouble to consider the "original and foundation of this right. Pleased "as we are with the possession, we are afraid to "look, back to the means by which it was ac"quired, as if fearful of some defect in our title." Discarding then a terror of so ungracious and suspicious a quality, let us boldly inquire after the evidence of our right. As God is the only source cf right that reason or common fense can recognise; and as man is a subject to whom a right is capable of being annexed j we are to inquire whether any right flowing from that Source, does in fact attach upon that subject, producing a right in men: which necessarily brings us to the examination of the subject Blackstone's Com. B. II. p. a. himself himself, or in other words to the second object of our inquiry, what is man? since it is only by the solution of this question that we can ascertain the several properties and relations of man, and by that means discover whether the relation of right constitutes any part of the circumstances of his nature. In defining man, it is unnecessary to be very minute; we are all sufficiently instructed in his origin and nature. We Ihall therefore only state, that man is a rational and intellectual being, whose present form of e...