No one is under obligation to abstain from interfering with the
possession of others, unless they give him a reciprocal guarantee
for the observance of a similar abstention from interference with
his possession. Nor does he require to wait for proof by experience of
the need of this guarantee, in view of the antagonistic disposition of
others. He is therefore under no obligation to wait till he acquires
practical prudence at his own cost; for he can perceive in himself
evidence of the natural inclination of men to play the master over
others, and to disregard the claims of the right of others, when
they feel themselves their superiors by might or fraud. And thus it is
not necessary to wait for the melancholy experience of actual
hostility; the individual is from the first entitled to exercise a
rightful compulsion towards those who already threaten him by their
very nature. Quilibet praesumitur malus, donec securitatem dederit
oppositi.
So long as the intention to live and continue in this state of
externally lawless freedom prevails, men may be said to do no wrong or
injustice at all to one another, even when they wage war against
each other. For what seems competent as good for the one is equally
valid for the other, as if it were so by mutual agreement. Uti
partes de jure suo disponunt, ita jus est.
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