A  man  cultivates  a  piece  of  land  ;  discovers  that  he  has  a  special
right  to  the  fruits  of  the  field,  and  appropriates  them  ;  insensibly
he  acquires  a  right  to  the  field  itself,  and  his  successors  continue
to  hold  it.  In  this  demonstration  we  sde  clearly  enough  the
peculiar  vice  of  eighteenth-century  speculation.  Had  Vattel  not
been  content  to  reason  from  the  necessarily  sophisticated  outlook
of  his  own  age  and  class,  but  had  turned  to  the  examination  of  the
village  communities  within  his  reach,  he  would  have  seen  that,  in
fact,  his  theory  was  absolutely  untrue  ;  that  the  appropriation  of
the  fruits  of  the  soil  had  gone  on  for  untold  centuries  without
individual  appropriation  of  the  soil.  Vattel  attacks  Wolff's
theory  of  the  origin  of  property  and  ownership  as  a  result  of  the
exercise  of  natural  liberty  and  apparent  needs,  but  his  own
generalization  is  far  less  convincing.  It  is  as  follows  :  As  the
race  multiplied  the  simple  products  of  the  earth  ceased  to  be
sufficient ;  industry  and  art  became  necessary ;  foreseeing  men
began  to  provide  against  the  future,  and  to  cultivate  fields  instead
of  roaming  at  large.  A  general  right  to  everything  existed,  so  these
men  could  not  be  restrained  from  taking  a  particular  portion  of
land  and  renouncing  the  rest.  They  thereupon  acquired  the  right
to  the  produce  of  this  soil.  Others  followed  their  example  :
"  voila  la  propriete  et  le  domaine  etablis."  In  the  light  of  modern
investigations  it  is  probable  that  Wolff's  speculations  are  nearer


484  VATTEL

the  truth  than  those  of  Vattel.  But  the  subject  is  not  one  for
speculation  at  all.  It  is  a  question  of  fact  to  be  ascertained  in
accordance  with  correct  laws  of  evidence.
