The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 · Thomas Hobbes
CHAPTER III.
1, 2. Titles to dominion: master and servant, &c. 3. Chains and other, &c. Bonds, &c. Slave defined. 4. Servants have no property against their lord, &c. 5. The master hath right to alienate his servant. 6. The servant of the servant, &c. 7. How servitude is discharged. 8. The middle lord, &c. 9. The title of man, &c. over beasts. [Sidenote: Titles to dominion; master and servant, &c.] 1. Having set forth in the two preceding chapters, the nature of a commonwealth _institutive_ by the consent of many men together, I come now to speak of dominion, or a body politic by acquisition, which is commonly called a _patrimonial_ kingdom. But before I enter thereinto, it is necessary to make known upon what title one man may acquire right, that is to say, property or dominion, over the person of another. For when one man hath dominion over another, there is a little kingdom. And to be a king by acquisition, is nothing else, but to have acquired a right or dominion over many.
2. Considering men therefore again in the state of nature, without covenants or subjection one to another, as if they were but even now all at once created male and female, there be three titles only, by which one man may have right and dominion over another; whereof two may take place presently, and those are, voluntary offer of subjection, and yielding by compulsion: the third is to take place, upon the supposition of children begotten amongst them. Concerning the first of these three titles, it is handled before in the two last chapters. For from thence cometh the right of sovereigns over their subjects in a commonwealth institutive. Concerning the second title, which is when a man submitteth to an assailant for fear of death, thereby accrueth a right of dominion. For where every man, as it happeneth in this case, hath right to all things, there needs no more for the making of the said right effectual, but a covenant from him that is overcome, not to resist him that overcometh. And thus cometh the victor to have right of absolute dominion over the conquered. By which there is presently constituted a little body politic, which consisteth of two persons, the one sovereign, which is called the _master_, or lord; the other subject, which is called the _servant_. And when a man hath acquired right over a number of servants so considerable, as they cannot by their neighbours be securely invaded, this body politic is a kingdom despotical.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.