It is a body of rules which governs, at all times and all places, the conduct of men.

Its arbiter is reason and, in the natural state, reason shows us that men are equal.

From this equality are born men's natural rights which Locke, like the Independents in the Puritan Revolution, identifies with life, liberty and property.

Obviously enough, as Hobbes had also granted, the instinct to self-preservation is the deepest of human impulses.

By liberty Locke means the right of the individual to follow his own bent granted only his observance of the law of nature.