Ch. ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godiv'm. 31 



once established, they would not distribute their 

 surplus produce without some compensation in 

 return. It would be observed in answer, that 

 this was an inconvenience greatly to be lamented ; 

 but that it was an evil which would bear no com- 

 parison to the black train of distresses inevitably 

 occasioned by the insecurity of property ; that the 

 quantity of food, which one man could consume, 

 was necessarily limited by the narrow capacity of 

 the human stomach; that it was certainly not 

 probable that he should throw away the rest; and 

 if he exchanged his surplus produce for the labour 

 of others, this would be better than that these 

 others should absolutely starve. 



It seems highly probable therefore that an ad- 

 ministration of property, not very different from 

 that which prevails in civilized states at present, 

 would be established as the best (though inade- 

 quate) remedy for the evils which v^^ere pressing 

 on the society. 



The next subject which would come under dis- 

 cussion, intimately connected with the precedino-, 

 is the commerce of the sexes. It would be uro-ed 

 by those who had turned their attention to the 

 true cause of the difficulties under which the com- 

 munity laboured, that while every man felt secure 

 that all his children would be well provided for by 

 general benevolence, the powers of the earth 

 would be absolutely inadequate to produce food 

 for the population which would ensue ; that even 

 if the whole attention and labour of the society 

 were directed to this sole point, and if by the 



