OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. H 



for the discrimination of the several relationships, and for the arrangement of 

 kindred into distinct lines of uesccnt, the answer would bo difficult, unless it was 

 first assumed that marriage between single pairs had always existed, thus rendering 

 definite the lines of parentage. With this point established, or assumed, a natural 

 system, numerical in its character, will be found iindcrlying any form which man 

 may contrive ; and which, resting upon an ordinance of nature, is both universal 

 and unchangeable. All of the descendants of an original pair, through intermedi- 

 ate pairs, stand to each other in fixed degrees of proximity, the nearness or re- 

 moteness of which is a mere matter of computation. If we ascend from ancestor 

 to ancestor in the lineal line, and again descend through the several collateral lines 

 imtil the widening circle of kindred circumscrib.es millions of the living and the 

 dead, all of these individuals, in virtue of their descent from common ancestors, 

 are bound to the "£V/o" by the chain of consanguinity. 



The blood relationships, to Avhich specific terms have been assigned, under the 

 system of the Aryan family, are few in number. They are grandfather and grand- 

 mother, father and mother, brother and sister, son and daughter, grandson and 

 granddaughter, uncle and aunt, nephew and niece, and cousin. Tliose more 

 remote in degree are described either by an augmentation or by a combination of 

 these terms. After these are the affincal or marriage relationships, which are 

 husband and wife, father-in-law and mother-in-law, son-in-law and daughter-in-law, 

 brother-in-law and sister-in-law, step-father and step-mother, step-son and ste^v 

 daughter, and step-brother and step-sister; together with such of the husbands and 

 wives of blood relatives as receive the corresponding designation by courtesy. 

 These terms are barely sufficient to indicate specifically the nearest relationships, 

 leaving much the largest number to be described by a combination of terms. 



So familiar are these ancient household words, and the relationships which they 

 indicate, that a classification of kindred by means of them, according to their 

 degrees of nearness, would seem to be not only a simple undertaking, but, when 

 completed, to contain nothing of interest beyond its adaptation to answer a 

 necessary want. But, since these specific terms are entirely inadequate to desig- 

 nate a person's kindred, they contain in themselves only the minor part of the 

 system. An arrangement into lines, with descriptive phrases to designate such 

 relatives as fall without the specific terms, becomes necessary to its completion. 

 In the mode of arrangement and of description diversities may exist. Every 

 system of consanguinity must be able to ascend and descend in the lineal line 

 through several degrees from any given person, and to specify the relationship of 

 each to Ego ; and also from the lineal, to enter the several collateral lines and 

 follow and describe the collateral relatives through several generations. "When 

 spread out in detail and examined, every scheme of consanguinity and affinity wiU 

 be found to rest upon definite ideas, and to be framed, so far as it contains any 

 plan, with reference to particular ends. In fine, a system of relationship, originat- 

 ing in necessity, is a domestic institution, which serves to organize a family by 

 the bond of consanguinity. As such it possesses a degree of vitality and a power 

 of self-perpetuation commensurate with its nearness to the primary wants of man. 



In a general sense, as has elsewhere been stated, there are but two radically 



