Chapter the third.
Of INCORPOREAL HEREDITAMENTS.
AN incorporeal hereditament is a right iſſuing out of a thing corporate (whether real or perſonal) or concerning, or annexed to, or exerciſible within, the ſame[1]. It is not the thing corporate itſelf, which may conſiſt in lands, houſes, jewels, or the like; but ſomething collateral thereto, as a rent iſſuing out of thoſe lands or houſes, or an office relating to thoſe jewels. In ſhort, as the logicians ſpeak, corporeal hereditaments are the ſubſtance, which may be always ſeen, always handled: incorporeal hereditaments are but a ſort of accidents, which inhere in and are ſupported by that ſubſtance; and may belong, or not belong to it, without any viſible alteration therein. Their exiſtence is merely in idea and abſtracted contemplation; though their effects and profits may be frequently objects of our bodily ſenſes. And indeed, if we would fix a clear notion of an incorporeal hereditament, we muſt be careful not to confound together the profits produced, and the thing, or hereditament, which produces them. An annuity, for inſtance, is an incorporeal hereditament: for though the money, which is the fruit or product of this annuity, is doubtleſs of a corporeal nature, yet the annuity itſelf, which produces that money, is a thing inviſible, has only a mental exiſtence, and cannot be delivered over from hand to hand. So tithes,
- ↑ Co. Litt. 19, 20.
if
