34 Of Systems oj Equality. Godwin. Bk.iii. 



pears to be natural, though not perhaps perfectly 

 justifiable. This origin is now lost in the new- 

 train of ideas that the custom has since generated. 

 What at first might be dictated by state neces- 

 sity is now supported by female delicacy ; and 

 operates with the greatest force on that part of the 

 society, where, if the original intention of the cus- 

 tom were preserved, there is the least real occa- 

 sion for it. 



When these two fundamental laws of society, 

 the security of property, and the institution of 

 marriage, were once established, inequality of 

 conditions must necessarily follow. Those who 

 were born after the division of property would 

 come into a world already possessed. If their 

 parents, from having too large a family, were 

 unable to give them sufficient for their support, 

 what could they do in a world where every thing 

 was appropriated ? We have seen the fatal effects 

 that would result to society, if every man had a 

 valid claim to an equal share of the produce of 

 the earth. The members of a family, which was 

 grown too large for the original division of land 

 appropriated to it, could not then demand a part 

 of the surplus produce of others as a debt of 

 justice. It has appeared that from the inevitable 

 laws of human nature some human beings will be 

 exposed to want. These are the unhappy persons, 

 who in the great lottery of life have drawn a blank. 

 The number of these persons would soon exceed 

 the ability of the surplus produce to supply. Mo- 

 ral merit is a very difficult criterion, except in 



