and, yet he must not work
for himself where he would, but for him who had bought part of the
Land, or had come to it by inheritance of his deceased parents, and
called it his own Land. So that he who had no Land was to work for
small wages for those who called the Land theirs. Thereby some are
lifted up in the chair of tyranny, and others trod under the
footstool of misery, as if the Earth were made for a few, and not
for all men."

"As if the Earth were made for a few, and not for all men!" In these
few pertinent and indignant words Winstanley strikes the keynote of all
his subsequent writings, as that of those of many other later students
of social problems, from John Locke,[71:1] who may be regarded as his
immediate successor, to Thomas Spence, Patrick Edward Dove,[71:2] Thomas
Paine,[71:3] and Henry George.

He then further emphasises his contention, in words similar to those
that are to-day resounding throughout the advanced political centres of
the world, as follows:

"And let all men say what they will, so long as such are Rulers as
call the land theirs, upholding this particular propriety of Mine
and Thine, the common people shall never have their liberty, nor
the Land be ever freed from troubles, oppressions, and
complainings, by reason whereof the Creator of all things is
continually provoked. O thou proud, selfish, governing Adam, in
this Land called England! know that the cries of the poor, whom
thou layeth heavy oppressions upon, are heard."

And in the closing passage of the chapter he formulates his social
ideals in the following words:

"This is the unrighteous Adam, that dammed up the water springs of
universal liberty, and brought the Creation under the curse of
bondage, sorrow, and tears. But when the Earth becomes a Common
Treasury, as it was in the beginning, and the King of Righteousness
comes to rule in every one's hearts, then He kills the first
Adam--for Covetousness thereby is killed.

"A man shall have meat and drink and clothes by his labour in
freedom, and what can he desire more in Earth? Pride and Envy
likewise are killed thereby; for everyone shall look upon each
other as equal in the Creation, every man, indeed, being a perfect
Creation of himself. And so this second Adam, Christ the Restorer,
stops or dams up the running of those stinking waters o