[p. 236]
§ 10
2. Possession must be seized, i.e. it must be made recognisable to the others that I want to have this object subsumed under my will, whether by bodily seizure or by forming or at least by designation of the object.
Explanation. The external seizure of possession must be preceded by the internal act of will which expresses that the thing is to be mine. The first kind of taking possession is bodily seizure. It has the defect that the objects to be seized must be of such a nature that I can immediately grasp them with the hand or cover them with my body, and further that it is not continuous. – The second, more perfect kind is forming, in that I give a thing a shape, e.g. cultivate a field, make gold into a cup. Here the form of the mine is immediately bound up with the object and is therefore in and for itself a sign that the matter too belongs to me. To forming belong, among other things, also the planting of trees, the taming and feeding of animals. An imperfect kind of possession of land is the use of a district without its being formed, e.g. when nomadic peoples use a territory for pasture of cattle, hunting peoples for hunting, fishing peoples the shore of a sea or river. Such a taking of possession is still superficial, because the actual use is as yet only temporary, not yet in a lasting manner adhering to the object. – Taking possession by the mere designation of the object is imperfect. The sign, which, as in forming, does not at the same time constitute the thing itself, is a thing that has a meaning which is not, however, its own essence and towards which it therefore conducts itself as towards something foreign. But it also has otherwise a meaning of its own, which is not connected with the nature of the thing designated by it. Designation is therefore arbitrary. Of what a thing is to be the sign is more or less a matter of convenience.
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