Page 180
Sect. 5.
Right and wrong, or injury, are opposite termes; so that right is the convenience or agreement which one thing hath with another;* 1.1 and wrong is the disagreement; as it is a right line which agree's with the rule of streight∣ness; a crooked line or a wrong one, which deviates from those rules; a right shot that which hit's the white, and a wrong which misseth. So it is a right action which is according to the rules of Actions, and a wrong which dif∣fer's from them. These rules are that we call law, which regulate's our actions; and when they are done, accordingly they are right, and we have right to doe them; and to this purpose, he said in the preceding Chap.* 1.2 Where no law, no injustice; and I may say, where can be no injustice, there can be no justice; contraries ap∣pertaine to the same subject, and expell each other out of it. So then, if right be an agreeing with some rule or law, it is so farre from being inconsistent with it, that it cannot be without it. As in a Common-wealth, a man hath only such a right to use or act any thing as the law of that Common-wealth gives him; so in the genera∣lity of this world, a man can only have right to doe or act such things which the universal law of nature direct's or impowers him to doe. Thus his Leviathan being touched, concerning this point, I will returne to his De Corpore politico, where I left, and shew what manner of right the law of Nature gives a man; and whether there be such a large Charter as he expresseth, or no.