All
this sort depending upon men's wills, or agreement in society, I
call instituted, or voluntary; and may be distinguished from the
natural, in that they are most, if not all of them, some way or
other alterable, and separable from the persons to whom they have
sometimes belonged, though neither of the substances, so related, be
destroyed. Now, though these are all reciprocal, as well as the
rest, and contain in them a reference of two things one to the
other; yet, because one of the two things often wants a relative name,
importing that reference, men usually take no notice of it, and the
relation is commonly overlooked: v.g. a patron and client ire easily
allowed to be relations, but a constable or dictator are not so
readily at first hearing considered as such. Because there is no
peculiar name for those who are under the command of a dictator or
constable, expressing a relation to either of them; though it be
certain that either of them hath a certain power over some others, and
so is so far related to them, as well as a patron is to his client, or
general to his army.
4. Ideas of moral relations. Fourthly, There is another sort of
relation, which is the conformity or disagreement men's voluntary
actions have to a rule to which they are referred, and by which they
are judged of; which, I think, may be called moral relation, as
being that which denominates our moral actions, and deserves well to
be examined; there being no part of knowledge wherein we should be
more careful to get determined ideas, and avoid, as much as may be,
obscurity and confusion.
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