Page 496 of 1391

Aristotle censures the community of property much in the spirit

of modern political economy, as tending to repress industry, and

as doing away with the spirit of benevolence. Modern writers

almost refuse to consider the subject, which is supposed to have

been long ago settled by the common opinion of mankind. But it

must be remembered that the sacredness of property is a notion

far more fixed in modern than in ancient times. The world has

grown older, and is therefore more conservative. Primitive

society offered many examples of land held in common, either by a

tribe or by a township, and such may probably have been the

original form of landed tenure. Ancient legislators had invented

various modes of dividing and preserving the divisions of land

among the citizens; according to Aristotle there were nations who

held the land in common and divided the produce, and there were

others who divided the land and stored the produce in common.