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LESSON 118 ORIGIN OF PROPERTY
第一百一十八課 財產的起源
In the beginning of the world, we are informed by Holy Writ, the all-bountiful Creator gave to man dominion over all the earth,
在創世之初，《圣經》告訴我們，萬能的造物主賦予人統領世間的權力，
and "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
“統領海洋中的魚，空中的飛禽，大地上生長的所有生命”。
This is the only true and solid foundation of man's dominion over external things,
這是人統領外在世界唯一真實和牢固的基礎。
whatever airy, metaphysical notions may have been started by fanciful writers upon this subject.
不論如何空靈和形而上學的觀念，也許都始于那些想象力豐富的作者開始對這個主題的玄想。
The earth, therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all mankind,
因此，除了其他生命以外，地球上的一切都是所有人類的普通財產，
exclusive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the Creator.
源于造物主的直接饋贈。
And while the earth continued bare of inhabitants, it is reasonable to suppose that all was in common among them,
在地球繼續光禿禿，適宜人類居住時，合理的推測是所有人能夠在其中共存，
and that everyone took from the public stock, to his own use, such things as his immediate necessities required.
大家的生活用品皆來自于公共物品，包括他的直接必需品。
These general notions of property were then sufficient to answer all the purposes of human life;
關于財產的這些普通觀念，足以滿足人類生活的所有需要；
and might, perhaps, still have answered them,
也許還能滿足他們，
had it been possible for mankind to have remained in a state of primeval simplicity, in which "all things were common to him."
對人類而言如果處于一種原始樸素狀態是可能的話，那么在這種狀態里“所有的一切都應該具有遍在性”。
Not that this communion of goods seems ever to have been applicable, even in the earliest ages, to aught but the substance of the thing;
對任何事物而言，即使在人類生活最早期，物品的這種交流也并非一定是適當的，
nor could it be extended to the use of it.
更不消說擴展到對物品的使用了。
