18.Here might be a place to state the different shares which different persons may have in the issuing of the same command:to explain the nature of corporate action:to enumerate and distinguish half a dozen or more different modes in which subordination between the same parties may subsist:
to distinguish and explain the different senses of the words,`consent',`representation',and others of connected import:consent and representation,those interesting but perplexing words,sources of so much debate:and sources or pretexts of so much animosity.But the limits of the present design will by no means admit of such protracted and intricate discussions.
19.In the same manner,also,it may be conceived,how the same set of men considered among themselves,may at one time be in a state of nature,at another time in a state of government.For the habit of obedience,in whatever degree of perfection it be necessary it should subsist in order to constitute a government,may be conceived,it is plain,to suffer interruptions.
At different junctures it may take place and cease.
20.Instances of this state of things appear not to be unfrequent.The sort of society that has been observed to subsist among the AMERICAN INDIANSmay afford us one.According to the accounts we have of those people,in most of their tribes,if not in all,the habit we are speaking of appears to be taken up only in time of war.It ceases again in time of peace.The necessity of acting in concert against a common enemy,subjects a whole tribe to the orders of a common Chief.On the return of peace each warrior resumes his pristine independence.
21.One difficulty there is that still sticks by us.It has been started indeed,but not solved.This is to find a note of distinction,a characteristic mark,whereby to distinguish a society in which there is a habit of obedience,and that at the degree of perfection which is necessary to constitute a state of government,from a society in which there is not:a mark,I mean,which shall have a visible determinate commencement;insomuch that the instant of its first appearance shall be distinguishable from the last at which it had not as yet appeared.`Tis only by the help of such a mark that we can be in a condition to determine,at any given time,whether any given society is in a state of government,or in a state of nature.