But, to conclude: reason being plain on our side that men are
naturally free; and the examples of history showing that the
governments of the world, that were begun in peace, had their
beginning laid on that foundation, and were made by the consent of the
people; there can be little room for doubt, either where the right is,
or what has been the opinion or practice of mankind about the first
erecting of governments.
105. I will not deny that if we look back, as far as history will
direct us, towards the original of commonwealths, we shall generally
find them under the government and administration of one man. And I am
also apt to believe that where a family was numerous enough to subsist
by itself, and continued entire together, without mixing with
others, as it often happens, where there is much land and few
people, the government commonly began in the father. For the father
having, by the law of Nature, the same power, with every man else,
to punish, as he thought fit, any offences against that law, might
thereby punish his transgressing children, even when they were men,
and out of their pupilage; and they were very likely to submit to
his punishment, and all join with him against the offender in their
turns, giving him thereby power to execute his sentence against any
transgression, and so, in effect, make him the law-maker and
governor over all that remained in conjunction with his family.
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