114 MAN THE ANIMAL 



Clan. Between the two there is only a diflference of degree. The 

 Family (Familia) is the aggregate of the members of a house- 

 hold under a common head, the Paterfamilias j whereas the Gens 

 is the aggregate of all individuals who bear a common name 

 and who, therefore, if their ancestory could be traced in the male 

 line through all its stages, would be found to be the descendants 

 of some ultimate common ancestor. But the Familia is a far 

 smaller, and therefore a far less powerful, unit than the Gens. 

 It cannot so effectively dominate the State or impede its activi- 

 ties. Again, the heads of families are many in number j the 

 heads of the Gentes (who must have existed at the time when 

 the Gens was the important unit) were necessarily few. The 

 State which deals with families deals with a multitude of indi- 

 viduals, not with an oligarchy representing the interests of a 

 number of corporations. The conception of individual rights, in 

 their modern sense, was, it is true, never fully recognized in 

 Roman Private Law. It was impeded by the Patria Potestas — 

 the life-long power of the father over the son. But much was 

 ultimately done to lessen the rigour of this patriarchal rulej 

 and the principles of Roman Law were finally extended to 

 races which knew nothing of the Patria Potestas. This law ulti- 

 mately gave the most perfect expression hitherto witnessed by 

 the world of rights which were both universal and individual. 

 The existence of the Empire gave Rome the power, possessed in 

 as high a degree by no other State, of dealing with the individual 

 on universal lines, because she was not hampered by the barriers 

 between man and man thrown up by separate national institu- 

 tions." 



We see from this how the laws of nations grew out of the 

 rules for family conduct administered by the head of the family 

 acting as governor. 



It has already been pointed out that the rules for behavior that 

 later developed into laws as we understand them originated as 

 group adaptations, which is to say derived their sanctions from 

 the group attitudes that represent the beginnings of sociality. 

 This fact cannot be too strongly emphasized, because it is of the 



