VIII NATURAL AXD POLITICAL RIGHTS 375 



mankind, and which could justly pass from one to another by 

 sale or gift. l 



Suppose, however, that we let this go and pro- 

 ceed to the next sentence : 



But at the end of what string of conveyances or grants 

 can be shown or supposed a like title to any part of the material 

 universe ? 



Well, but surely all " human productions," from 

 the roughest flint implement to the most exquisite 

 chronometer, are " parts of the material universe " ? 

 We have seen that man cannot make flints ; nor 

 can he make the iron, or gold, or sodium, or silicon, 

 which enters into the structure of the watch or the 

 pen. His most consummate art is but a moving into 

 certain places of the parts of the material universe 

 with which Nature supplies him at least as gratuit- 

 ously as she supplies land. 



What then becomes of the next part of the 

 argument ? 



To improvements such an original title can be shown, but it is 

 a title only to the improvements and not to the land itself. If I 

 clear a forest, drain a swamp, or fill a morass, all I can justly 

 claim is the value given by these exertions. They give me no 

 right to the land itself, no claim other than to my equal share 

 with every other member of the community in the value which 

 is added to it by the growth of the community. 



By a parity of reasoning, it would seem that I 

 might say to a chronometer maker : " The gold 

 and the iron of this timepiece, and, in fact, all the 



1 Progress and Poverty, p. 242. 



