But for this, the laws of property would be undistinguishable from the wildest superstitions.
Such a reference, instead of weakening the obligations of justice, strengthens them.

What stronger foundations can there be for any duty than that, without it, human nature could not subsist; and that, according as it is observed, the degrees of human happiness go on increasing?
Either Justice is evidently founded on Utility, or our regard for it is a simple instinct like hunger, resentment, or self-preservation.

But on this last supposition, property, the subject-matter, must be also discerned by an instinct; no such instinct, however, can be affirmed.
Indeed, no single instinct would suffice for the number of considerations entering into a fact so complex.

To define Inheritance and Contract, a hundred volumes of laws are not enough; how then can nature embrace such complications in the simplicity of an instinct.

For it is not laws alone that we must have, but authorized interpreters.
Have we original ideas of praetors, and chancellors, and juries?
Instincts are uniform in their operation; birds of a species build their nests alike.