 Locke realized that the crucial objection to allowing people to act as judges with power to punish in the state of nature was that such people would end up being judges in their own cases. Locke readily admitted that this was a serious inconvenience and a primary reason for leaving the state of nature (Two Treatises 2.13). Locke insisted on this point because it helped explain the transition into civil society. Locke thought that in the state of nature men had a liberty to engage in “innocent delights” (actions that are not a violation of any applicable laws), to seek their own preservation within the limits of natural law, and to punish violations of natural law. The power to seek one’s preservation is limited in civil society by the law, and the power to punish is transferred to the government (Two Treatises 2.128–130). The power to punish in the state of nature is thus the foundation for the right of governments to use coercive force.