THE PRIMARY SOCIAL SETTLEMENT. 541 



advice in this direction, and his calling attention to the moral inherit- 

 ance of the child in the case of Timothy, show that he considered the 

 family the primary social settlement. 



Feudalism was, perhaps, a means of developing individualism in 

 the family. Dr. Thwing says : " When not waging warfare, the lord 

 in his castle on crest or side of hill was bound into an intimate and 

 strong relation with wife and children. They were separated from 

 society, and compelled to find satisfaction and contentment in each 

 other. This tended to place members of the family on absolute 

 equality." However, in humble homes, among families without 

 rank or reputation, degradation was developed through the abusive 

 power of the lord over the wives of his dependents. 



A most beautiful type of family life is seen at the beginning of 

 our own country in colonial days. It is a revelation to watch the 

 observance of that home amenity — the just consideration of each 

 other — in the Winthrop family, as it grew into nine children and 

 several faithful domestics, who always went to church with the fam- 

 ily, and were buried in the family lot. It is as fascinating as a real- 

 istic novel, in the best sense of realism, to see them go from an old 

 world to a new, under trying circumstances, yet remaining loyal to 

 each other in enforced absences and exasperating losses. The post- 

 nuptial love letters of John and Margaret Winthrop are as fervid as 

 the prenuptial. The eldest son in this family is like a younger 

 brother to his father, sharing responsibility and labor with him, and 

 always a noble stepson to his loving stepmother. The filial respect, 

 the family government, the family economy, the family unity, the 

 family simplicity, and withal the family hospitality, so sincere and 

 generous as to include the soldier, the sailor, the farmer, John Eliot 

 the missionary, the London lawyer, and the Oxford scholar, who are 

 welcomed without fuss or fume to succotash, hominy, hasty pudding, 

 pumpkin pie, and a feather bed, exhibit a type of family life that puts 

 to shame a merely outward colonial home — a house — full of things, 

 and empty of real lives. 



After the picture of the " Governor's family," and the lapse of 

 two hundred years, we may catch a glimpse of a famous social group 

 whose influence has been felt throughout this whole century, in 

 American literature, education, philosophy, and theology. Civil 

 society, also, is largely indebted to that Litchfield family of Lyman 

 Beecher, whose mandate — " Mind your mother! Quick! JSTo crying! 

 Look pleasant! " — was obeyed in military fashion. This household 

 was pre-eminently cheerful, witty, literary, social, and free in its 

 development. The growing young people were not uneasy to go 

 somewhere every night, because the older and younger enjoyed and 

 appreciated each other in delightful evenings at home, where con- 



