The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
But for such as have strong bodies, the case is otherwise: they are to
be forced to work; and to avoid the excuse of not finding employment,
there ought to be such laws, as may encourage all manner of arts; as
navigation, agriculture, fishing, and all manner of manufacture that
requires labour. The multitude of poor, and yet strong people still
increasing, they are to be transplanted into countries not sufficiently
inhabited: where nevertheless, they are not to exterminate those they
find there; but constrain them to inhabit closer together, and not to
range a great deal of ground, to snatch what they find; but to court
each little plot with art and labour, to give them their sustenance in
due season. And when all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then
the last remedy of all is war; which provideth for every man, by
victory, or death.
[Sidenote: Good laws, what.]
To the care of the sovereign, belongeth the making of good laws. But
what is a good law? By a good law, I mean not a just law: for no law can
be unjust. The law is made by the sovereign power, and all that is done
by such power, is warranted, and owned by every one of the people; and
that which every man will have so, no man can say is unjust. It is in
the laws of a commonwealth, as in the laws of gaming: whatsoever the
gamesters all agree on, is injustice to none of them. A good law is
that, which is _needful_, for the _good of the people_, and withal
_perspicuous_.
[Sidenote: Such as are necessary.]
For the use of laws, which are but rules authorized, is not to bind the
people from all voluntary actions; but to direct and keep them in such a
motion, as not to hurt themselves by their own impetuous desires,
rashness or indiscretion; as hedges are set, not to stop travellers, but
to keep them in their way. And therefore a law that is not needful,
having not the true end of a law, is not good. A law may be conceived to
be good, when it is for the benefit of the sovereign; though it be not
necessary for the people; but it is not so. For the good of the
sovereign and people, cannot be separated. It is a weak sovereign, that
has weak subjects; and a weak people, whose sovereign wanteth power to
rule them at his will. Unnecessary laws are not good laws; but traps for
money: which where the right of sovereign power is acknowledged, are
superfluous; and where it is not acknowledged, insufficient to defend
the people.
[Sidenote: Such as are perspicuous.]