The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and
the power of man expire with his life, by nature's law. Some societies
give it an artificial continuance, for the encouragement of industry;
some refuse it, as our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians.
The generations of men may be considered as bodies or corporations.
Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its
continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the
succeeding generation, free and unincumbered, and so on, successively,
from one generation to another for ever. We may consider each generation
as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind
themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than
the inhabitants of another country. Or the case may be likened to the
ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate the land for his
debts, during the continuance of his usufruct; but at his death, the
reversioner (who is also for life only) receives it exonerated from
all burthen. The period of a generation, or the term of its life, is
determined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little only in
different climates, offer a general average, to be found by observation.
I turn, for instance, to Buffon's tables, of twenty-three thousand nine
hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at which they happened, and
I find that of the numbers of all ages living at one moment, half will
be dead in twenty-four years and eight months.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333