This
makes him willing to quit this condition which, however free, is
full of fears and continual dangers; and it is not without reason that
he seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are
already united, or have a mind to unite for the mutual preservation of
their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general
name- property.
124. The great and chief end, therefore, of men uniting into
commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the
preservation of their property; to which in the state of Nature
there are many things wanting.
Firstly, there wants an established, settled, known law, received
and allowed by common consent to be the standard of right and wrong,
and the common measure to decide all controversies between them. For
though the law of Nature be plain and intelligible to all rational
creatures, yet men, being biased by their interest, as well as
ignorant for want of study of it, are not apt to allow of it as a
law binding to them in the application of it to their particular
cases.
125. Secondly, in the state of Nature there wants a known and
indifferent judge, with authority to determine all differences
according to the established law.
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