ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE LEO XIH. 113
perish in the using, but also those which, though used, remain for use in the future.
7. This becomes still more clearly evident if we con- sider man's nature a little more deeply. For man, comprehending by the power of his reason things innu- merable, and joining the future with the present being, moreover, the master of his own acts governs himself by the foresight of his counsel, under the eternal law and the power of God, Whose Providence governs all things ; wherefore it is in his power to exercise his choice not only on things which regard his present welfare, but also on those which will be for his advantage in time to come. Hence man not only can possess the fruits of the earth, but also the earth itself ; for of the products of the earth he can make provision for the future. Man's needs do not die out, but recur ; satisfied to-day, they demand new supplies to-morrow. Nature, therefore, owes to man a storehouse that shall never fail, the daily supply of his daily wants. And this he finds only in the inexhaustible fertility of the earth.
8. Nor must we, at this stage, have recourse to the State. Man is older than the State; and he holds the right of providing for the life of his body prior to the formation of any State. And to say that God has given the earth to the use and enjoyment of the universal human race is not to deny that there can be private property. For God has granted the earth to mankind in general ; not in the sense that all without distinction can deal with it as they please, but rather that no part of it has been assigned to any one in particular, and that the limits of private possession have been left to be fixed by man's own industry and the laws of individual peoples. Moreover the earth, though divided among private owners, ceases not thereby to minister to the needs of all; for there is no one who does not live on what the
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