have long
continued. The dangers to which they must have frequently been exposed,
by the attacks of fierce and rapacious beasts, by the proedatory
attempts of their own species, and by the disputes of contiguous and
independent families; these, together with their inability to defend,
themselves, on many such occasions, must have incited them to unite.
Hence then was _society_ formed on the grand principles of
preservation and defence: and as these principles began to operate, in
the different parts of the earth, where the different families had
roamed, a great number of these _societies_ began to be formed and
established; which, taking to themselves particular names from
particular occurrences, began to be perfectly distinct from one another.

As the individuals, of whom these societies were composed, had
associated only for their defence, so they experienced, at first, no
change in their condition. They were still independent and free; they
were still without discipline or laws; they had every thing still in
common; they pursued the same, manner of life; wandering only, in
_herds_, as the earth gave them or refused them sustenance, and
doing, as a _publick body_, what they had been accustomed to do as
_individuals_ before. This was the exact situation of the Getae and
Scythians[037], of the Lybians and Goetulians[038], of the Italian
Aborigines[039], and of the Huns and Alans[040]. They had left their
original state of _dissociation_, and had stepped into that, which
has been just described. Thus was the second situation of men a state of
_independent society_.

Having thus joined themselves together, and having formed themselves
into several large and distinct bodies, they could not fail of
submitting soon to a more considerable change. Their numbers must have
rapidly increased, and their societies, in process of time, have become
so populous, as frequently to have experienced the want of subsistence,
and many of the commotions and tumults of intestine strife. For these
inconveniences however there were remedies to be found.
_Agriculture_ would furnish them with that subsistence and support,
which the earth, from the rapid increase of its inhabitants, had become
unable spontaneously to produce. An _assignation_ of _property_
would not only enforce an application, but excite an emulation,
to labour; and _government_ would at once afford a security
to the acquisitions of the industrious, and heal the intestine
diso