CONSTITUTION OF SOCIETY-GOVERNMENT. 



MAN is a gregarious, or, as Aristotle said, a 

 political animal ; that is, he loves to herd 

 with his fellows to live in society. There are, 

 indeed, instances of men fleeing society, and 

 spending existence in solitude, but these unhappily 

 disposed individuals form rare exceptions to the 

 general rule. 



FAMILY RELATIONSHIP MARRIAGE. 



The origin of civilisation has recently been the 

 object of earnest investigation by numerous in- 

 quirers, who seem to have made it clear that in 

 the lowest stages of savage life the family relation 

 does not exist. The same authorities hold that all 

 branches of the human race have passed through 

 this lowest stage. Be this as it may, the forma- 

 tion of the family is the first step toward the 

 formation of the civilised community. A family 

 consists of husband, wife, children. This is not 

 an accidental or arbitrary arrangement. The 

 family originates in the necessities of our nature, 

 and springs up inevitably wherever that nature 

 develops itself. Accordingly, all attempts to 

 encroach on the obligations or the privileges of 

 the family are simply attacks on civilisation. 

 In antiquity, slaves were regarded by their mas- 

 ters, and regarded themselves, as members of the 

 family, and it is a very poor account of Chris- 

 tianity if a less kindly and intimate relation 

 prevails between masters and servants in modern 

 times. The relation of master and servant, by 

 whatever name we choose to call it, is necessary 

 for the purposes of civilisation, and is founded on 

 nature, just as much as the relation between par- 

 ents and children, or husbands and wives. If 

 God has bestowed a progressive nature on man, 

 he must have intended that some men should, by 

 the aid of others, be freed from domestic occupa- 

 tions which, by absorbing their time, would pre- 

 vent them from devoting themselves to those 

 pursuits on which progress depends. The relation 

 between master and servant is one of mutual 

 obligation. It imposes duties on the former as 

 well as on the latter, and it is a very low view of 

 it, particularly within the domestic circle, to 

 regard it as a mere pecuniary arrangement. 



The fundamental object of the family compact 

 is a due provision for the affections, and for the 

 nurture and education of rational beings, and free 

 and orderly citizens. This is insured by the 

 matrimonial engagement a solemn covenant be- 

 tween a man and a woman to attach themselves 

 to each other through all the contingencies of life, 

 till the death of either dissolve the union. In 

 every nation removed from barbarism, marriage 

 is a recognised ordinance, guarded by law and 

 custom. In some eastern countries, polygamy, or 

 the marriage of a man with many wives, has long 

 been tolerated ; but that relations of this kind are 

 unnatural, is testified by the fact, that polygamy is 

 degrading to the female sex, unfavourable to the 

 rearing of children, and that it is inconsistent 

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with the numerical equality of the sexes. In all 

 countries in which polygamy is tolerated, woman 

 occupies a degraded position, and society is rude 

 and unexpansive in its character. Nature has de- 

 signed woman to be the equal of man as a moral 

 and intellectual being ; and when she confines her- 

 self to the exercise of her proper duties as a wife 

 and mother, she is placed in a favourable position 

 as regards her own happiness and the happiness 

 of her husband. And all this can only be realised 

 by monogamy the marriage of a man with but 

 one wife. We have deemed it necessary to state 

 thus unequivocally at the outset what appear to 

 be the primary principles of human relationship ; 

 for there are not wanting those who would 

 endeavour to rear systems of society in which the 

 family compact is to have no place, and parental 

 care is to be absolved from its duties a dream 

 which the common-sense of mankind will ever 

 reject as visionary. 



Society, as has been shewn, is necessarily com- 

 posed of distinct families. The manner, however, 

 in which these families should associate with 

 respect to each other, is a question which has 

 been often agitated, and here deserves some 

 degree of notice. The true explanation, we think, 

 lies in an appeal to nature. 



It would appear that from the beginning of the 

 world every nation has consisted of a certain 

 number of families, and that each family, in its 

 general circumstances, has been independent of 

 others. Families, in the patriarchal times, may 

 have been less or more dependent on, or connected 

 with the head of a tribe ; but we nowhere read of 

 families yielding up their individual identity, and 

 living in private community with each other. In 

 all the higher races of mankind, at anyrate, each 

 family has always had its own house, its own joys, 

 sorrows, hopes, fears, and historical traditions. 

 Each father of a family, a sovereign within his 

 own domain, has been left to govern his little 

 realm, and to undertake the obligation of finding 

 his wife, children, and domestics in the means of 

 daily subsistence. 



A practice so universal cannot be supposed to 

 be a violation of either nature or convenience. It 

 has sprung up from the wants and feelings of 

 mankind, and may be said to be a spontaneous 

 result of unalterable circumstances. Tracing it 

 to its true source in the mental and physical 

 constitution, we find that it affords the widest 

 scope for personal enterprise, perseverance, and 

 other useful emotions. It is an error to suppose 

 that it is selfish in principle, because it is the 

 form of existence which best ministers to the good 

 of the whole state, and even the whole community 

 of mankind, as well as to that of each separate 

 household. 



In opposition to the exclusiveness inseparable 

 from the family relations, it is urged that, by 

 leaving society to spontaneous arrangement, there 

 comes a time when each nation is consumed by 

 its internal disorders. The clever, the industrious, 



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