The following is a transcription of the fourth edition of John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, published in 1713, nine years after his death. The three previous editions, in 1690, 1694 and 1698, were published anonymously. This fourth edition was made from one or two copies of the second or third, as corrected by Locke and an assistant.
We have tried to keep the transcription as close to the original as possible, amending the text only where it was obviously incorrect.
TWO
TREATISES
OF
GOVERNMENT:
In the Former,
The false Principles and Foundation of
Sir Robert Filmer,
And his followers
Are Detected and Overthrown.
The Latter, is an
ESSAY
Concerning the
True Original, Extent, and End of
Civil-Government.
By John Locke, Esq;
The Fourth Edition.
Quod si nihil cum potentiore juris humani relinquitur inopi, at ego ad deos vindices humanæ superbiæ confugiam: Et precabor ut iras suas vertant in eos, quibus non suæ res, non alienæ satis sint: quorum sævitiam non mors noxiorum exsatiet: Placari nequeant, nisi hauriendum sanguinem laniandaq; viscera nostra præbuerimus. Liv. l. 9. c. 1.
LONDON: Printed for John Churchill, at the
Black Swan in Pater-noster-row. 1713