jects
as he thinks may serve his welfare and that of his offspring, and
especially does he have a natural instinct and desire to possess and
control exclusively for himself whatever, much or little, he has
wrenched from nature or otherwise obtained by the exercise of his
various powers. This instinct is also observable in some animals. A
dog will hide a bone for his own exclusive future use. Man also
instinctively claims for his own the natural increase of what he has
acquired, the young of his beasts, the fruits of his orchard.

This desire for control includes the desire to store up, to use, to
consume, to transfer, and even to destroy at will. This desire is seen
in young children, who will try to clutch and hold whatever attracts
them, and who will hoard or break toys or throw them away as their
whims may be. As they get older the desire to control grows stronger,
for they destroy less and preserve more in order to have greater
measure of control; but still they desire freedom to consume or
destroy at their own will. So strong is this desire of control that
men wish to direct what shall be done with their property after their
death.

If one is balked or hindered in the gratification of any of these
desires, there is excited in him a feeling of resentment against the
cause, even if it be only some force of nature. There is a note of
anger in the cries of a child over interference with his play, the
deprivation of any toy or other thing he may have or desire. That the
wind or the rain was the cause does not sooth him. In the mature man
also, anger adds some force to the kick he gives even inanimate
objects unexpectedly impeding him. Who of us has ever fallen over a
chair in the dark without mentally, at least, consigning it to
perdition? The old law of Deodand was an expression of this feeling of
resentment against inanimate objects even. By that law, according to
Blackstone, whatever chattel was the immediate cause of the death of
a reasonable creature was forfeited to the crown, as when a cart ran
over a man. By the laws of Draco whatever caused a man's death by
falling upon him was to be destroyed or cast out of the community.
Thus a statue having fallen upon a man, it was thrown into the sea.
The Mosaic law savagely declared: "If an ox gore a man that he die,
the ox shall be stoned and his flesh shall not be eaten."

Is not this instinctive feeling of resentment at interference with
one's person, liberty, or p