But when we
consider that the practice of the strong and powerful, how universal
soever it may be, is seldom the rule of right, however it be one
part of the subjection of the conquered not to argue against the
conditions cut out to them by the conquering swords.
181. Though in all war there be usually a complication of force
and damage, and the aggressor seldom fails to harm the estate when
he uses force against the persons of those he makes war upon, yet it
is the use of force only that puts a man into the state of war. For
whether by force he begins the injury, or else having quietly and by
fraud done the injury, he refuses to make reparation, and by force
maintains it, which is the same thing as at first to have done it by
force; it is the unjust use of force that makes the war. For he that
breaks open my house and violently turns me out of doors, or having
peaceably got in, by force keeps me out, does, in effect, the same
thing; supposing we are in such a state that we have no common judge
on earth whom I may appeal to, and to whom we are both obliged to
submit, for of such I am now speaking. It is the unjust use of
force, then, that puts a man into the state of war with another, and
thereby he that is guilty of it makes a forfeiture of his life.
Pages:
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175