Chapter XXV: The Subjection of Children (1)

FROM the modes of conduct which affect the life or bodily welfare of a fellow-creature we shall pass to those relating to personal freedom. In its absolute form the right of liberty may be granted to a perfect being, but has no existence on earth. Ever since the conduct of men became subject to moral censure, the right of doing what they pleased was _eo ipso_ denied them; and in resisting wrong men have not only in various ways interfered with the liberty of their fellow-creatures, but have considered such interference to be their right or even their duty. As to the question what conduct is wrong opinions have differed, and so also as to the proper means of interference; but with neither of these questions are we concerned at present. Nor shall I deal with the subject of political liberty, nor with such restrictions as people lay on their own freedom by contract. I shall only consider facts bearing upon that state of subjection to which large classes of individuals are doomed by custom or law, on account of their birth or other circumstances beyond their own control--the subjection of children, wives, and slaves to their parents, husbands, or masters.

Among the lower races every family has its head, who exercises more or less authority over its members. In some instances where the maternal system of descent prevails, a man's children are in the power of the head of {598} their mother's family or of their maternal uncle;[1] but this is by no means the rule even among peoples who reckon kinship through females only. The facts which have been adduced as examples of the so-called "mother-right" in most instances imply, chiefly, that children are named after their mothers, not after their fathers, and that property and rank descend exclusively in the female line;[2] and this is certainly very different from a denial of paternal rights.[3] Among those Australian tribes which have the system of maternal descent the father is distinctly said to be the master of his children.[4] In Melanesia, where the clan of the children is determined by that of the mother, she is, to quote Dr. Codrington, "in no way the head of the family. The house of the family is the father's, the garden is his, the rule and government are his."[5] As regards the Iroquois--among whom, at the death of a man, his property is divided between his brothers, sisters, and mother's brothers, whilst the property of a woman is transmitted to her children and sisters[6]--we are told that the mother superintends the children, but that the word of the father is law and must be obeyed by the whole household.[7] Among the Mpongwe, who reckon kinship through the mother, the father has by law unrestricted power over his children.[8] And in Madagascar, where children generally follow the condition of the mother,[9] the commands of a father or an ancestor are, among all the tribes, "held as most sacredly binding upon his descendants."[10] Whatever might have been the case in earlier times, it is a fact beyond dispute that among the great bulk of existing savages children are in the power of {599} their father, though he may to some extent have to share his authority with the mother.

[Footnote 1: Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 40 _sq._ Grosse, _Die Formen der Familie_, p. 183 _sq._ Post, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, i. 51 _sq._ Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 262 _sq._]

[Footnote 2: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 97.]

[Footnote 3: See von Dargun, _Mutterrecht und Vaterrecht_, p. 3 _sqq._]

[Footnote 4: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 60, 61, 69.]

[Footnote 5: Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 34.]

[Footnote 6: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 110.]

[Footnote 7: Seaver, _Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison_, p. 165.]

[Footnote 8: Hübbe-Schleiden, _Ethiopien_, pp. 151, 153.]

[Footnote 9: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 103.]

[Footnote 10: Sibree, _The Great African Island_, p. 326.]

The extent of the father's power, however, is subject to great variations. Among some savage peoples, as we have seen, he may destroy his new-born child; among others infanticide is prohibited by custom. Among some he may sell his children,[11] among others such a right is expressly denied him.[12] Frequently he gives away his daughter in marriage without consulting her wishes; but in other cases her own consent is required, or she is allowed to choose her husband herself.[13] Marriage by purchase does not imply that "a girl is sold by her father in the same manner, and with the same authority, with which he would dispose of a cow."[14] It seems that the paternal authority is always in some degree limited by public opinion. Among the Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, for instance, though the head of the house is described as an autocrat in his own family, the son, backed by public opinion, may, and does, openly quarrel with and threaten his father in cases when the father's actions have been of a particularly gross character.[15]

[Footnote 11: Schadenberg, 'Negritos der Philippinen,' in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie_, xii. 137. Post, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, i. 51 _sq._ (Bogos, Fantis, Dahomans). Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas_, p. 189. Leuschner, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 16 _sq._ (Bakwiri). Among the Banaka and Bapuku, in the Cameroons, the father may give his daughter in payment for a debt, but not his son (_ibid._ p. 31).]

[Footnote 12: Kraft, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 285 (Wapokomo). Rautanen, _ibid._ p. 329 (Ondonga).]

[Footnote 13: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 215 _sqq._]

[Footnote 14: Leslie, _Among the Zulus and Amatongas_, p. 194. Westermarck, _op. cit._ ch. x.]

[Footnote 15: Robertson, _Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush_, p. 474.]

The essence of dependence lies in obedience and submission. To judge from what is said about children's behaviour towards their parents, the authority of the father must among some savages be practically very slight.

The South American Charruas "ne défendent rien à leurs enfans, et ceux-ci n'ont aucun respect pour leurs pères."[16] Among the Brazilian Indians, according to von Martius, respect and obedience on the part of children towards their parents are unknown.[17] {600} Among the Tarahumares of Mexico "the children grow up entirely independent, and if angry a boy may even strike his father."[18] We are told that among the Aleuts parents "scarcely ever enjoy so much authority as to compel their own children to shew them the least obedience, or to go a single step in their service";[19] but this does not seem to hold good of all of their tribes.[20] Of the Kamchadales Steller states that the children insult their parents with all sorts of bad talk, stand in no fear of them, obey them in nothing, and are consequently never commanded to do anything, nor punished.[21]

[Footnote 16: Azara, _Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale_, ii. 23.]

[Footnote 17: von Martius, in _Jour. Roy. Geo. Soc._ ii. 199. _Cf._ Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. 387 (Guaycurus).]

[Footnote 18: Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, p. 275.]

[Footnote 19: Georgi, _Russia_, iii. 212.]

[Footnote 20: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, 'Report on Alaska,' in _Tenth Census of the United States_, pp. 155, 158.]

[Footnote 21: Steller, _Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka_, p. 353. _Cf._ Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 158.]

Other savages, again, are by no means deficient in filial piety.[22]

[Footnote 22: Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 213. Schwaner, _Borneo_, i. 162 (Malays of the Barito River in Borneo). Worcester, _Philippine Islands_, p. 481. Lewin, _Hill Tracts of Chittagong_, p. 102 (Kukis). Vámbéry, _Türkenvolk_, p. 268 (Kara-Kirghiz). Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 67; Hunter, _Annals of Rural Bengal_, iii. 72 (Kandhs). Granville and Roth, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxviii. 109 (Jekris of the Warri District of the Niger Coast Protectorate). Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_, p. 801 (Latuka).]

Among various Eskimo[23] and North American Indian tribes[24] children are described as very obedient to their parents. Parry says of the Eskimo of Winter Island and Igloolik that disobedience is scarcely ever known, and that "a word or even a look from a parent is enough."[25] The Potawatomis hold the violation of the advice and directions of their parents one of the most atrocious crimes.[26] In Tonga "filial duty is a most important duty and appears to be universally felt."[27] One of the chief duties which the Ainos taught their children was obedience to parents.[28] Among the Central Asiatic Turks a son, whilst young, behaves as if he were his father's slave.[29] Among the {601} Ossetes "the authority of the head of the family, whether grandfather, father, stepfather, uncle, or elder brother, is submitted to unconditionally; the young men never sit in his presence, nor speak with a loud voice, nor contradict him."[30] Among the Barea and Kunáma "a father and a mother are respected to the utmost degree. A son never dares to contradict his parents nor oppose their commands, however unjust they be. The mother particularly is much beloved and tenderly cared for at her old age."[31] Among the Mandingoes children "have a great veneration for their parents," and "would feel extreme reluctance to disobey their father."[32] Of the Bachapins, a Bechuana tribe, it is said that **"filial obedience is strenuously enforced."[33] Among the Kafirs "any one who should fail in respect for his father, or show any neglect of him, would draw on himself the contempt of the whole horde; there have been even instances in which want of filial duty has been punished with infamy and banishment."[34]

[Footnote 23: Hall, _Arctic Researches_, p. 568. Boas, 'Central Eskimo,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ vi. 566. Murdoch, 'Ethnol. Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' _ibid._ ix. 417. Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District,' _ibid._ xi. 191 (Koksoagmyut).]

[Footnote 24: Turner, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 269 (Hudson Bay Indians). Heriot, _Travels through the Canadas_, p. 530. Harmon, _Journal of Voyages_, p. 347 (Indians on the east side of the Rocky Mountains).]

[Footnote 25: Parry, _Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage_, p. 530.]

[Footnote 26: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River_, i. 127.]

[Footnote 27: Mariner, _Natives of the Tonga Islands_, ii. 179.]

[Footnote 28: Batchelor, _Ainu and their Folk-Lore_, p. 254.]

[Footnote 29: Vámbéry, _op. cit._ p. 226.]

[Footnote 30: von Haxthausen, _Transcaucasia_, p. 414 _sq._]

[Footnote 31: Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, p. 474.]

[Footnote 32: Caillié, _Travels through Central Africa_, i. 352 _sq._]

[Footnote 33: Burchell, _Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa_, ii. 557.]

[Footnote 34: Lichtenstein, _Travels in Southern Africa_, i. 265. Alberti, _De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_, p. 116 _sqq._ Shooter, _Kafirs of Natal_, p. 98.]

The period during which the paternal authority lasts varies. The daughter is in her father's power till she marries, and as a rule no longer;[35] but in some instances his authority over her continues even after her marriage.[36] This, we have reason to believe, is particularly the case when the husband, on marrying, does not take his wife to his own home, but goes himself to live with her in the house or community of her father.[37] A father's authority over his son frequently comes to an end as the young man {602} grows up. Among the Fuegians a son becomes independent of his parents at a very early age, being allowed to leave their wigwam if he pleases.[38] Among the Togiagamutes, an Eskimo tribe, "the youth, as soon as he is able to build a kaiak and to support himself, no longer observes any family ties but goes where his fancy takes him."[39] Of the Australian natives it is said that sons become independent when they have gone through the ceremonies by which they attain to the _status_ of manhood;[40] among the Bangerang tribe of Victoria "after his twelfth year or so the boy was very little subject to the father, though parental affection always endured."[41] Among the Bedouins "the young man, as soon as it is in his power, emancipates himself from the father's authority, still paying him some deference as long as he continues in his tent; but whenever he can become master of a tent himself (to obtain which is his constant endeavour), he listens to no advice, nor obeys any earthly command but that of his own will."[42] That a son is emancipated from the father's power by getting full-grown or by leaving the household is probably the rule among the great majority of the lower races.[43] But here again instances to the contrary are not wanting.[44] In Flores the sons even of rich families are dressed like slaves at public feasts, so long as the father lives, as also at his funeral. This, our authority adds, is apparently the external sign of a strict _patria potestas_, which remains in force till the funeral; until then the son is the father's slave.[45]

[Footnote 35: See, _e.g._, Leuschner, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 17 (Bakwiri); Fama Mademba, _ibid._ p. 65 (natives of the Sansanding States); Nicole, _ibid._ p. 100 (Diakité); Lang, _ibid._ p. 224 (Washambala); Kraft, _ibid._ p. 286 (Wapokomo); Marx, _ibid._ p. 349 (Amahlubi); Sorge, _ibid._ p. 404 (Nissan Islanders of the Bismarck Archipelago).]

[Footnote 36: See, _e.g._, Beverley, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 206. What is said, _ibid._ p. 31, concerning the Banaka and Bapuku does not seem to agree with the statement p. 30, that the husband is the head of his household and the possessor of his wives.]

[Footnote 37: _Cf._ Mazzarella, _La condizione giuridica del marito nella famiglia matriarcale_, _passim_; _infra_, on the Subjection of Wives. The point in question, like the whole subject of the father's authority among the lower races, requires much further investigation.]

[Footnote 38: Bove, _Patagonia, Terra del Fuoco_, p. 133.]

[Footnote 39: Petroff, _loc. cit._ p. 135.]

[Footnote 40: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 61.]

[Footnote 41: _Idem_, _Recollections of Squatting in Victoria_, p. 248.]

[Footnote 42: Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys_, p. 201.]

[Footnote 43: For other instances, see Munzinger, _Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_, p. 36; Post, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, i. 51 (Somals); Leuschner, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 17 (Bakwiri); Nicole, _ibid._ p. 100 (Diakité); Beverley, _ibid._ p. 206 (Wagogo); Marx, _ibid._ p. 349 (Amahlubi); Sorge, _ibid._ p. 404 (Nissan Islanders).]

[Footnote 44: Sarbah, _Fanti Customary Laws_, p. 5. Stuhlmann, _op. cit._ p. 801 (Latuka). Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 31 (Banaka and Bapuku). Fama Mademba, _ibid._ p. 65 (natives of the Sansanding States). Kraft, _ibid._ p. 286 (Wapokomo), Abercromby, _Pre- and Proto-historic Finns_, i. 181 (Mordvins).]

[Footnote 45: von Martens, quoted by Nieboer, _Slavery as an Industrial System_, p. 26, n. 2.]

{603} However, the expiration of the paternal power, in the proper sense of the term, does not necessarily imply the loss of all authority over the children. The father, at all events, retains the rights incident to his superior age, and among many uncivilised peoples these are great. Old age commands respect and gives authority.

Among the Fuegians "in each family the word of an old man is accepted as law by the young people; they never dispute his authority."[46] The Patagonians "pay respect to old people, taking great care of them."[47] The Caribs "portent un grand respect aus vieillards."[48] The same is the case among many of the North American Indians.[49] Among the Naudowessies, whilst the advice of a father will seldom meet with any extraordinary attention from the young Indians, "they will tremble before a grandfather, and submit to his injunctions with the utmost alacrity. The words of the ancient part of their community are esteemed by the young as oracles."[50] Among the Eskimo about Behring Strait the old men are listened to with respect;[51] and among the Point Barrow Eskimo "respect for the opinions of elders is so great that the people may be said to be practically under what is called 'simple elder rule.'"[52] Among the Veddahs of Ceylon the oldest man "is regarded with a sort of patriarchal respect when accident or occasion has brought together any others than the members of one family."[53] Among the Jakuts an old man is implicitly obeyed as a father of a family; "a young man ever gives his opinion with the greatest respect and caution; and even when asked, he submits his ideas to the judgment of the old."[54] Regard for the aged is found among the Ainos,[55] Kurilians,[56] Mongols,[57] Ossetes,[58] {604} Kukis,[59] Nicobarese,[60] Negritos of the Philippine Islands,[61] Papuans of New Guinea[62] New Caledonians,[63] Caroline Islanders,[64] Tonga Islanders,[65] and, in a remarkable degree, among the Australian aborigines.[66] "Among the Kurnai," says Mr. Howitt, "age meets with great reverence. . . . It may be stated as a general rule that authority attaches to age. It follows from this that there is no hereditary authority and no hereditary chieftain. The authority which is inherent in age attaches not alone to the man, but also to the woman." And he justly adds that this principle regulating authority seems to be, not peculiar to the Kurnai, but general to the whole Australian race.[67]

[Footnote 46: King and Fitzroy, _Voyages of the "Adventure" and "Beagle,"_ ii. 179.]

[Footnote 47: _Ibid._ ii. 172.]

[Footnote 48: de Poircy-de Rochefort, _Histoire des Isles Antilles_, p. 461.]

[Footnote 49: Buchanan, _North American Indians_, p. 7. Prescott, in Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_, ii. 196.]

[Footnote 50: Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of North America_, p. 243.]

[Footnote 51: Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xviii. 304.]

[Footnote 52: Murdoch, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 427.]

[Footnote 53: Hartshorne, 'Weddas,' in _Indian Antiquary_, viii. 320. _Cf._ Deschamps, _Carnet d'un voyageur_, p. 395.]

[Footnote 54: Sauer, _Billings' Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia_, p. 124.]

[Footnote 55: Batchelor, _Ainu and their Folk-Lore_, p. 254. von Siebold, _Ethnol. Studien über die Aino auf der Insel Yesso_, p. 25.]

[Footnote 56: Krasheninnikoff, _History of Kamschatka_, p. 236.]

[Footnote 57: Prejevalsky, _Mongolia_, i. 71.]

[Footnote 58: von Haxthausen, _Transcaucasia_, p. 414. Strabo (xi. 4. 8) reports the same of the Albanians of the Eastern Caucasus.]

[Footnote 59: Lewin, _Hill Tracts of Chittagong_, p. 102.]

[Footnote 60: Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, p. 243.]

[Footnote 61: Schadenberg, in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ xii. 135. Earl, _Papuans_, p. 133. Foreman, _Philippine Islands_, p. 209.]

[Footnote 62: Earl, _op. cit._ p. 81.]

[Footnote 63: Atkinson, in _Folk-Lore_, xiv. 248.]

[Footnote 64: Christian, _Caroline Islands_, p. 72. Angas, _Polynesia_, p. 382.]

[Footnote 65: Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 155.]

[Footnote 66: Roth, _North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines_, p. 141. Fraser, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 5. Schuermann, 'Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln,' in Woods, _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 226. Hale _U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology_, p. 113. Mitchell, _Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia_, ii. 346. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, i. 137 _sq._ See also Steinmetz, _Ethnol. Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Strafe_, ii. 26 _sqq._]

[Footnote 67: Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p. 211 _sq._]

Turning to African peoples: among the Danakil the aged of both sexes, but especially the males, are held in great veneration, and the old men are consulted on every occasion of any importance.[68] "The real religion of the Barea and Kunáma," says Munzinger, "consists in an extraordinary reverence for old age. Among these peoples only the old, the weak, or the blind command respect."[69] The E[(w]e-speaking peoples on the Slave Coast have a proverb, "Respect the elders, they are our fathers."[70] Winterbottom doubts whether the ancient Lacedæmonians paid greater regard to old age than do the natives of Sierra Leone.[71] Mr. Leighton Wilson says of the Mpongwe:--"There is no part of the world where respect and veneration for age is carried to a greater length than among this people. . . . All the younger members of society are early trained to show the utmost deference to age. They must never come into the presence of aged persons or pass by their dwellings without taking off their hats and assuming a crouching gait. When seated in their presence {605} it must always be at a 'respectful distance'--a distance proportioned to the difference in their ages and position in society. If they come near enough to hand an aged man a lighted pipe or a glass of water, the bearer must always fall upon one knee. Aged persons must always be addressed as 'father' (_rera_) or 'mother' (_ngwe_). Any disrespectful deportment or reproachful language toward such persons is regarded as a misdemeanour of no ordinary aggravation. A youthful person carefully avoids communicating any disagreeable intelligence to such persons, and almost always addresses them in terms of flattery and adulation."[72] Among the For tribe of Central Africa "great consideration is shown towards women when they are old, as well as towards aged men."[73] Regard for old age is, in fact, a very general trait of the African character.[74]

[Footnote 68: Scaramucci and Giglioli, 'Notizie sui _Danakil_,' in _Archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia_, xiv. 36.]

[Footnote 69: Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, p. 474.]

[Footnote 70: Ellis, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples_, p. 268.]

[Footnote 71: Winterbottom, _Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone_, i. 211.]

[Footnote 72: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 392 _sq._]

[Footnote 73: Felkin, 'Notes on the For Tribe of Central Africa,' in _Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, xiii. 224 _sq._]

[Footnote 74: Monrad, _Bidrag til en Skildring af Guinea-Kysten_, p. 37 (Negroes of Accra). Granville and Roth, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxviii. 109 (Jekris). Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, p. 460 (Calabar tribes). Caillié, _op. cit._ i. 352 (Mandingoes). Stuhlmann, _op. cit._ pp. 789, 801 (Latuka). Casati, _Ten Years in Equatoria_, i. 186. Chanler, _Through Jungle and Desert_, p. 246 (Embe). New, _Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa_, p. 101 (Wanika). Johnston, _Kilima-njaro Expedition_, p. 419 (Masai). Arnot, _Garenganze_, p. 78, note. Lichtenstein, _op. cit._ i. 265; Alberti, _op. cit._ p. 118; Shooter, _op. cit._ p. 98 (Kafirs). Schinz, _Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika_, p. 82 (Hottentots).]

Not only old age, but superiority of age, gives a certain amount of power.

The Australian natives have a well-regulated order of precedence and authority. "When the individual reaches the full development of puberty, he or she undergoes a ceremony which entitles him or her on its successful completion to a certain social rank or _status_ in the community. As life progresses, other and higher ranks are progressively attainable for each sex, until the highest and most honourable grade, that enjoyed by an old man, or an old woman, is reached."[75] All North American Indians "hold that superior age gives authority; and every person is taught from childhood to obey his superiors and to rule over his inferiors. The superiors are those of greater age; the inferiors, those who are younger."[76] The same influence of age makes itself felt in the relations between elder {606} and younger brothers and sisters.[77] Navaho myths indicate that "even among twins, the younger must defer to the elder."[78] The eldest brother comes next to the father in authority, and, in case of his death, succeeds him as the head of the family. The Aleuts described by Father Veniaminof maintained that "if one had no father he should respect his oldest brother and serve him as he would a father."[79] Among the Kalmucks "the elder brother is the despot of the younger ones, and is even allowed to punish them."[80] In Madagascar so great respect is paid to seniority "that if two slaves who are brothers are going a journey, any burden must be carried by the younger one, so far at least as his strength will allow."[81] In Tonga custom decrees "that all persons shall be in the service of their older and superior relations, if those relations think proper to employ them"; and every chief shows the greatest regard for his eldest sister.[82] Among the Hottentots "the highest oath a man could take and still takes, was to swear by his eldest sister, and if he should abuse this name, the sister will walk into his flock and take his finest cows and sheep, and no law could prevent her from doing so."[83] Among the Point Barrow Eskimo, again, "seniority gives precedence when there are several women in one hut, and the sway of the elder in the direction of everything connected with her duties seems never disputed."[84]

[Footnote 75: Roth, _op. cit._ p. 169. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 65 _sq._; Eyre, _Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia_, ii. 315.]

[Footnote 76: Powell, 'Sociology,' in _American Anthropologist_, N. S. i. 700. _Cf._ _Idem_, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ iii. p. lviii.]

[Footnote 77: Nachtigal, _Sahara und Sudan_, i. 450 (Tedâ). Chavanne, _Die Sahara_, p. 396 (Arabs of the Sahara). Paulitschke, _op. cit._ p. 192 (Gallas). von Haxthausen, _Transcaucasia_, p. 415 (Ossetes). Bach, 'Die Wotjaken,' in _Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicæ_, xii. 489 (Votyaks). Sumner, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxi. 75 (Jakuts). Batchelor, _Ainu and their Folk-Lore_, p. 254.]

[Footnote 78: Matthews, 'Study of Ethics among the Lower Races,' in _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, xii. 9.]

[Footnote 79: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, _loc. cit._ p. 155.]

[Footnote 80: Bergmann, _Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken_, ii. 305.]

[Footnote 81: Sibree, _op. cit._ p. 182.]

[Footnote 82: Mariner, _op. cit._ i. 226; ii. 155.]

[Footnote 83: Hahn, _The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_, p. 21.]

[Footnote 84: Simpson, quoted by Murdoch, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 427.]

It must be added, however, that the reverence for old age may cease when the grey-head gets so old as to be an incumbrance to those around him;[85] and imbecility may put an end to the father's authority over his family.[86] We have previously noticed that parents worn out with age {607} and disease are among some peoples killed or abandoned by their own children.[87]

[Footnote 85: Curr, _Squatting in Victoria_, pp. 254. 245, 265 _sqq._; Eyre, _op. cit._ ii. 316 (Australian aborigines). Sumner, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxi. 76 (Jakuts). Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 177 _sq._ (Greenlanders). _Supra_, p. 534.]

[Footnote 86: Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 31 (Banaka and Bapuku).]

[Footnote 87: _Supra_, p. 386 _sq._]

When passing from the savage and barbarous races of men to those next above them in civilisation, we find paternal, or parental, authority and filial reverence at their height. In ancient Mexico "necessitous parents were allowed to dispose of any one of their children, in order to relieve their poverty," whereas a master could not sell a well-behaved slave without his consent.[88] A youth was seldom permitted to choose a wife for himself, but was expected to abide by the selection of his parents;[89] and "children were bred to stand so much in awe of their parents that even when grown up and married they hardly durst speak before them."[90] So, too, in Nicaragua a father might sell his children as slaves in cases of great necessity,[91] and matches were in the larger part of the country arranged by the parents.[92] In ancient Peru disobedient children were publicly chastised by their own parents;[93] and Inca Pachacutec confirmed the law that sons should obey and serve their fathers until they reached the age of twenty-five, and that none should marry without the consent of the parents and of the parents of the girl.[94]

[Footnote 88: Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, i. 360.]

[Footnote 89: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 226.]

[Footnote 90: Clavigero, _op. cit._ i. 331.]

[Footnote 91: Squier, _Nicaragua_, p. 345.]

[Footnote 92: Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, ii. 667.]

[Footnote 93: Herrera, _General History of the West Indies_, iv. 339.]

[Footnote 94: Garcilasso de la Vega, _First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, ii. 207.]

In China a house-father reigns almost supreme in his family, and, according to ancient Chinese ideas, not even marriage withdraws the son from his power.[95] The law, it is true, prohibits him from killing[96] or selling[97] his children; but it is only in supreme cases that the State interferes between the head of a household and his family belongings, and the sale of children is practically allowed.[98] No person, of whatever age, can act for himself in matrimonial {608} matters during the lifetime or in the neighbourhood of his parents or near senior kinsfolk.[99] The law provides that disobedience to the instructions and commands of parents or paternal grandparents shall be punished with one hundred blows,[100] and that a still greater punishment shall be inflicted on a son accusing his father or mother and on a grandson accusing his paternal grandparent, even though the accusation prove true.[101] Indeed, from earliest youth the Chinese lad is imbued with such respect for his parents that it becomes at last a religious sentiment, and forms, as he gets older, the basis of his only creed--the worship of ancestors.[102] Confucianism itself has been briefly described as "an expansion of the root idea of filial piety."[103] The Master said:--"filial piety is the root of all virtue, and the stem out of which grows all moral teaching. . . . Filial piety is the constant method of Heaven, the righteousness of Earth, and the practical duty of Man. . . . Of all the actions of man there is none greater than filial piety. In filial piety there is nothing greater than the reverential awe of one's father. In the reverential awe shown to one's father there is nothing greater than the making him the correlate of Heaven."[104] But the idea that filial piety is the fundamental duty of man was not originated by Confucius, it had obtained a firm hold of the national mind long before his time.[105] It also prevails in Corea[106] and Japan,[107] where the authority of a house-father is, or, in the case of Japan, until lately has been,[108] as great as in China. "The Japanese maiden, as pure as the purest Christian virgin, will at the command of her father enter the brothel to-morrow, and prostitute herself for life. Not a murmur escapes her lips {609} as she thus filially obeys."[109] In Corea, whilst the first thing inculcated in a child's mind is respect for his father, little respect is felt for the mother; the child soon learns that a mother's authority is next to nothing.[110]

[Footnote 95: de Groot, _Religious System of China_ (vol. ii. book) i. 507.]

[Footnote 96: _Supra_, p. 393.]

[Footnote 97: _Ta Tsing Leu Lee_, sec. cclxxv. p. 292.]

[Footnote 98: Douglas, _Society in China_, p. 78. Staunton, in his translation of _Ta Tsing Leu Lee_, p. 292 n. * Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, ii. 209.]

[Footnote 99: Medhurst, 'Marriage, Affinity, and Inheritance in China,' in _Trans. Roy. Asiatic Soc. China Branch_, iv. 11.]

[Footnote 100: _Ta Tsing Leu Lee_, sec. cccxxxviii. p. 374.]

[Footnote 101: _Ibid._ sec. cccxxxvii. p. 371 _sq._]

[Footnote 102: Wells Williams, _Middle Kingdom_, i. 646.]

[Footnote 103: Griffis, _Corea_, p. 328 _sq._]

[Footnote 104: _Hsiáo King_, 1, 7, 9 (_Sacred Books of the East_, iii. 446, 473, 476).]

[Footnote 105: Douglas, _Confucianism and Taouism_, p. 118.]

[Footnote 106: Griffis, _Corea_, pp. 236, 259.]

[Footnote 107: Rein, _Japan_, p. 427. Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 122 _sq._]

[Footnote 108: Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 148.]

[Footnote 109: _Idem_, _Mikado's Empire_, p. 555. _Cf._ Rein, _Japan_, p. 427.]

[Footnote 110: Griffis, _Corea_, p. 259.]

It is the general opinion of Assyriologists that in ancient Chaldæa, at least in the early period of its history, the father had absolute authority over all the members of his household.[111] Anything undertaken by them without his consent was held invalid in the eyes of the law,[112] and a disobedient son might be sold as a slave.[113] According to the Laws of [Hv]ammurabi, a man might give his son or daughter as a hostage for debts;[114] but he could not disown his children at discretion. It is said that if he wishes to cut off his son he must declare his intention to the judge, whereupon "the judge shall enquire into his reasons, and if the son has not committed a heavy crime which cuts off from sonship, the father shall not cut off his son from sonship."[115] Professor Hommel believes that the mother's authority over her children was as great as the father's,[116] whereas Meissner concludes that it was less, from the fact that her children are not seldom found to be at law with her in matters of succession.[117] Among the Hebrews a father might sell his child to relieve his own distress, or offer it to a creditor as a pledge.[118] He had not only unlimited power to marry his daughters, but even to sell them as maids into concubinage, though not to a foreign people.[119] He also chose wives for his sons;[120] and there is no indication that the subjection of sons ceased after a certain age.[121] How important were the duties of the child to the {610} parents is shown in the primitive typical relation of Isaac to Abraham, and may be at once learned from the placing of the law on the subject among the Ten Commandments, and from its position there in the immediate proximity to the commands relating to the duties of man towards God.[122] Philo Judæus observes that it occupies this position because parents are something between divine and human nature, partaking of both--of human nature inasmuch as it is plain that they have been born and that they will die, and of divine nature because they have engendered other beings, and have brought what did not exist into existence. What God is to the world, that parents are to their children; they are "the visible gods."[123] In Muhammedan countries parents have practically great authority over their children. Should a father exceed the bounds of moderation or justice in chastising his son, the idea of prosecuting him would hardly occur to anyone, the injured party being prevented by public opinion, if not by habit and feeling, from appealing against his own father.[124] Disobedience to parents is considered by Moslems as one of the greatest of sins, and is put, in point of heinousness, on a par with idolatry, murder, and desertion in an expedition against infidels. "An undutiful child," says Mr. Lane, "is very seldom heard of among the Egyptians or the Arabs in general. . . . Sons scarcely sit or eat or smoke in the presence of the father, unless bidden to do so."[125] In Morocco it is curious to see big, grown-up sons sneak away as soon as they hear their father's steps, or to notice their absolute reticence in his presence. Children's deference for their mothers is less formal, but almost equally great.[126]

[Footnote 111: Oppert, in _Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen_, 1879, p. 1604 _sqq._ Hommel, _Die semitischen Völker und Sprachen_, i. 416. Meissner, _Beiträge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht_, p. 14 _sq._]

[Footnote 112: Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 134.]

[Footnote 113: Hommel, _op. cit._ i. 416. Meissner, _op. cit._ p. 1.]

[Footnote 114: _Laws of [Hv]ammurabi_, 117.]

[Footnote 115: _Ibid._ 168.]

[Footnote 116: Hommel, _op. cit._ i. 416.]

[Footnote 117: Meissner, _op. cit._ p. 15.]

[Footnote 118: Ewald, _Antiquities of Israel_, p. 190. Wellhausen, _Prolegomena to the History of Israel_, p. 465.]

[Footnote 119: _Exodus_, xxi. 7 _sq._]

[Footnote 120: _Genesis_, xxiv. 4; xxviii. 1 _sq._ _Exodus_, xxxiv. 16. _Deuteronomy_, vii, 3.]

[Footnote 121: _Cf._ Michaelis, _Commentaries on the Laws of Moses_, i. 444.]

[Footnote 122: _Cf._ Ewald, _op. cit._ p. 188; Gans, _Das Erbrecht in weltgeschichtlicher Entwickelung_, i. 134.]

[Footnote 123: Philo Judæus, _Opera_, i. 759 _sqq._]

[Footnote 124: Urquhart, _Spirit of the East_, ii. 440 _sq._]

[Footnote 125: Lane, _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians_, p. 70. _Cf._ Pool, _Studies in Mohammedanism_, p. 171.]

[Footnote 126: _Cf._ Urquhart, _op. cit._ ii. 265 _sq._]

Among the ancient Romans, in relation to the house-father, "all in the household were destitute of legal rights--the wife and the child no less than the bullock or the {611} slave."[127] The father not only had judicial authority over his children--implying the right of inflicting capital punishment on them[128]--but he could sell them at discretion.[129] Even the grown-up son and his children were subject to the house-father's authority,[130] and in marriage without _conventio in manum_ a daughter remained in the power of her father or tutor even after marriage.[131] Filial piety, including reverence not only for the father but for the mother also, was regarded as a most sacred duty.[132] To the ancient Roman the parents were hardly less sacred beings than the gods.[133]

[Footnote 127: Mommsen, _History of Rome_, i. 74.]

[Footnote 128: _Supra_, p. 393.]

[Footnote 129: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, _Antiquitates Romanæ_, ii. 27.]

[Footnote 130: _Institutiones_, i. 9. 3.]

[Footnote 131: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 230.]

[Footnote 132: Leist, _Græco-italische Rechtsgeschichte_, p. 11 _sqq._ _Idem_, _Alt-arisches Jus Gentium_, p. 185.]

[Footnote 133: Valerius Maximus, i. 1. 13: "Pari vindicta parentum ac deorum violatio expianda est." Servius, _In Virgilii Georgicon_, ii. 473: "Sacra deorum sancta apud illos sunt, sancti etiam parentes."]

It has been suggested by Sir Henry Maine and others that the _patria potestas_ of the Romans was a survival of the paternal authority which existed among the primitive Aryans.[134] But no clear evidence of the general prevalence of such unlimited authority among other so-called Aryan peoples has been adduced. The ancient jurist observed, "The power which we have over our children is peculiar to Roman citizens; for there are no other nations possessing the same power over their children as we have over ours."[135] That among the Greeks and Teutons the father had the right to expose his children in their infancy, to sell them, in case of urgency, as long as they remained in his power,[136] and to give away his daughters in marriage,[137] does not imply the possession of a sovereignty like that which the Roman house-father exercised over his descendants of all ages. In Greece[138] and among all the Teutonic {612} nations[139] the father's authority over his sons came to an end when the son grew up and left his home. But here again we must distinguish between the legal rights of parents and the duties of children. There are numerous passages in the Greek writings which put filial piety on a par with the duties towards the gods.[140]

[Footnote 134: Maine, _Ancient Law_, p. 138. Fustel de Coulanges, _La cité antique_, p. 96 _sqq._ Hearn, _Aryan Household_, p. 92.]

[Footnote 135: _Institutiones_, i. 9. 2.]

[Footnote 136: Leist, _Græco-italische Rechtsgeschichte_, p. 60 _sq._ Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 461 _sq._ Brunner, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, i. 76. In France the parents' right of selling their children gradually disappeared under the kings of the third race (de Laurière, in Loysel, _Institutes coutumières_, i. 82).]

[Footnote 137: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 232 _sqq._]

[Footnote 138: Leist, _Græco-italische Rechtsgeschichte_, p. 62 _sq._ Cauvet, 'De l'organisation de la famille à Athènes,' in _Revue de législation_, xxiv. 138.]

[Footnote 139: Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 462. Brunner, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, i. 75 _sq._]

[Footnote 140: Schmidt, _Ethik der alten Griechen_, ii. 141 _sq._]

Nor is there any evidence that the _patria potestas_ of the Roman type ever prevailed in full in India, great though the father's or parent's authority has been, and still is, among the Hindus.[141] Among the Vedic people the father seems to have been the head of the family only as long as he was able to be its protector and maintainer,[142] decrepit parents being even allowed to die of starvation.[143] According to some sacred books from a later age, the father and the mother have power to give, to sell, and to abandon their son, because "man formed of uterine blood and virile seed proceeds from his mother and his father as an effect from its cause"; however, an only son may not be given or received in adoption, nor is a woman allowed to give or receive a son except with her husband's permission.[144] In other books it is said that "the gift or acceptance of a child and the right to sell or buy a child are not recognised,"[145] and that he who casts off his son--unless the son be guilty of a crime causing loss of caste--shall be fined by the king six hundred _panas_.[146] But whatever be the legal rights of a parent, filial piety is a most stringent duty in the child.[147] A man has three Atigurus, or specially venerable superiors: his father, mother, and spiritual teacher. To them he must always pay obedience. He must do what is agreeable and serviceable to them. He must never do anything without their leave.[148] "By honouring these three all that ought to be done by man is accomplished; {613} that is clearly the highest duty, every other act is a subordinate duty."[149] Similar feelings prevail among the modern Hindus.[150] Sir W. H. Sleeman observes, "There is no part of the world, I believe, where parents are so much reverenced by their sons as they are in India in all classes of society." The duty of daughters is from the day of their marriage transferred entirely to their husbands and their husbands' parents, but between the son and his parents the reciprocity of rights and duties which have bound together the parent and child from infancy follows them to the grave. The sons are often actually tyrannised over by their mothers.[151]

[Footnote 141: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 231 _sq._]

[Footnote 142: _Rig-Veda_, i. 70. 5.]

[Footnote 143: Zimmer, _Altindisches Leben_, p. 328.]

[Footnote 144: _Vasishtha_, xv. 1 _sqq._ _Baudhâyana Parisishta_, vii. 5. 2 _sqq._]

[Footnote 145: _Âpastamba_, ii. 6. 13. 11.]

[Footnote 146: _Laws of Manu_, viii. 389. _Cf._ _ibid._ xi. 60.]

[Footnote 147: _Âpastamba_, i. 4. 14. 6. _Laws of Manu_, ii. 225 _sqq._; iv. 162; &c.]

[Footnote 148: _Institutes of Vishnu_, ch. 31.]

[Footnote 149: _Laws of Manu_, ii. 237.]

[Footnote 150: Nelson, _View of the Hind[=u] Law_, p. 56 _sq._ Ghani, 'Social Life and Morality in India,' in _International Journal of Ethics_, vii. 312.]

[Footnote 151: Sleeman, _Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official_, i. 330 _sqq._]

According to ancient Russian laws, fathers had great power over their children;[152] but it is not probable that a son could be sold as a slave.[153] Baron von Haxthausen, who wrote before the Emancipation in 1861, says that "the patriarchal government, feelings, and organisation are in full activity in the life, manners, and customs of the Great Russians. The same unlimited authority which the father exercises over all his children is possessed by the mother over her daughters."[154] It was a common custom for a father to marry his young sons to full-grown women; and in Poland also, according to Nestor, a father used to select a bride for his son.[155] According to Professor Bogi[vs]i['c], the power of the father is not so great among the Southern Slavs as among the Russians;[156] but a son is not permitted to make a proposal of marriage to a girl against the will of his parents, whilst a daughter, of course, enjoys still less freedom of disposing of her own hand.[157] According to a Slavonian maxim, "a father is like an earthly god to his son."[158]

[Footnote 152: Accurse, quoted by de Laurière, in Loysel, _op. cit._ i. 82.]

[Footnote 153: Macieiowski, _Slavische Rechtsgeschichte_, iv. 404.]

[Footnote 154: von Haxthausen, _Russian Empire_, ii. 229 _sq._]

[Footnote 155: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 234. Macieiowski, _op. cit._ ii. 189.]

[Footnote 156: Maine, _Early Law and Custom_, p. 244, note.]

[Footnote 157: Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven_, pp. 314, 320.]

[Footnote 158: Maine, _Early Law and Custom_, p. 243.]

{614} Among this group of peoples, also, we meet with reverence for the elder brother, for persons of a superior age generally, and, especially, for the aged.

Obedience on the part of the younger to the elder brother is strongly inculcated by Confucianism and Taouism.[159] In ancient China the eldest son of the principal wife held so high a position that even his own father had to mourn for him at his death in the selfsame degree in which the son was bound to mourn for his father;[160] and in some provinces of Japan the elder brother or sister did not even go to the funeral of the younger.[161] In Babylonia the elder brother occupied a privileged position in the family in relation to the younger.[162] In one of the Mandæan writings it is said, "Honour your father and your mother and your elder brother as your father."[163] According to the sacred books of the Hindus, "the feet of elder brothers and sisters must be embraced, according to the order of their seniority";[164] "towards a sister of one's father and of one's mother, and towards one's own elder sister, one must behave as towards one's mother," though the mother is more venerable than they.[165]

[Footnote 159: Douglas, _Confucianism and Taouism_, pp. 123, 124, 259. Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 125 _sq._]

[Footnote 160: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 509.]

[Footnote 161: Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 127.]

[Footnote 162: Hommel, _op. cit._ i. 417 _sq._]

[Footnote 163: Brandt, _Mandäische Schriften_, p. 64.]

[Footnote 164: _Âpastamba_, i. 4. 14. 9. _Cf._ _ibid._ i. 4. 14. 14; _Laws of Manu_, ii. 225.]

[Footnote 165: _Laws of Manu_, ii. 133.]

Again, in ancient Mexico respect was paid not only by children to their parents but by the young to the old.[166] Among the Yucatans "the young reverenced much the aged."[167] In China persons of the lowest class who have attained to an unusual age have not infrequently been distinguished by the Emperor,[168] and even criminals with grey hairs are treated with regard.[169] "Respect for elders," says Mencius, "is the working of righteousness";[170] and it is said in Thâi Shang that the good man "will respect the old and cherish the young."[171] A Japanese proverb runs, "Regard an old man as thy father."[172] We read in Leviticus, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God."[173] Veneration {615} for the aged is emphatically inculcated by Islam.[174] In the sacred books of India it is represented as a virtue.[175] Herodotus states that the Egyptians resembled the Lacedæmonians in the reverence the young men paid to their elders.[176] Plato says in his 'Laws' that everybody ought to consider that the elder has the precedence of the younger in honour, both among the gods as also among men who would live in security and happiness; wherefore it is a foolish thing and hateful to the gods to see an elder man assaulted by a younger in the city. Everybody ought to regard a person who is twenty years older than himself, whether male or female, as his father or mother, and to abstain from laying hands on any such person "out of reverence to the gods who preside over birth."[177] Regard for old age lies behind such words as _presbyter_ and the Anglo-Saxon _ealdormonn_; and all travellers among the Southern Slavs have noticed their extraordinary respect for old people.[178]

[Footnote 166: Clavigero, _op. cit._ i. 8l. _Cf._ _ibid._ i. 332.]

[Footnote 167: Landa, _Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan_, p. 178.]

[Footnote 168: Davis, _China_, ii. 97.]

[Footnote 169: Wells Williams, _Middle Empire_, i. 805.]

[Footnote 170: Mencius, vii. 1. 15. 3.]

[Footnote 171: _Thâi Shang_, 3.]

[Footnote 172: Griffis, _Mikado's Empire_, p. 505.]

[Footnote 173: _Leviticus_, xix. 32. _Cf._ _Job_, xxxii. 1; _Proverbs_, xvi. 31, and xx. 29.]

[Footnote 174: Ameer Ali, _Ethics of Islâm_, p. 27 _sq._]

[Footnote 175: _Âpastamba_, i. 5. 15. _Laws of Manu_, ii. 121. _Dhammapada_, 109.]

[Footnote 176: Herodotus, ii. 80.]

[Footnote 177: Plato, _Leges_, ix. 879. _Cf._ _Idem_, _Respublica_, v. 465.]

[Footnote 178: Maine, _Early Law and Custom_, p. 243.]

In Europe the paternal authority of the archaic type which we have just considered has gradually yielded to a system under which the father has been divested of the most essential rights he formerly possessed over his children--a system the inmost drift of which is expressed in the words of the French Encyclopedist, "Le pouvoir paternel est plutôt un devoir qu'un pouvoir."[179] Already in pagan times the Roman _patria potestas_ became a shadow of what it had been. Under the Republic the abuses of paternal authority were checked by the censors, and in later times the Emperors reduced the father's power within comparatively narrow limits. Not only was the life of the child practically as sacred as that of the parent long before Christianity became the religion of Rome,[180] but Alexander Severus ordained that heavy punishments should be inflicted on members of a family by the magistrate only. Diocletian and Maximilian took away the power of selling freeborn children as slaves. The father's privilege of {616} dictating marriage for his sons declined into a conditional veto; and it seems that the daughters also, at length, gained a certain amount of freedom in the choice of a husband.[181]

[Footnote 179: _Encyclopédie méthodique_, Jurisprudence, vii. 77, art. Puissance paternelle.]

[Footnote 180: _Supra_, p. 393 _sq._]

[Footnote 181: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 236.]

The new religion was anything but unfavourable to this process of emancipation. The ethical precept of filial piety was changed by Christ. His church was a militant church. He had come not to send peace but a sword, "to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother."[182] Being chiefly addressed to the young, the new teaching naturally caused much disorder in families. Fathers disinherited their converted sons,[183] and children thought that they owed no duty to their parents where such a duty was opposed to the interests of their souls. According to Gregory the Great, we ought to ignore our parents, hating them and flying from them when they are an obstacle to us in the way of the Lord;[184] and this became the accepted theory of the Church.[185] Nay, it was not only in similar cases of conflict that Christianity exercised a weakening influence on family ties which had previously been regarded with religious veneration. In all circumstances the relationship between child and parent was put in the shade by the relationship between man and God. "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in Heaven."[186] "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."[187] At the same time the fifth commandment, though modified by considerations which would never have occurred to the mind of an orthodox Jew, was left formally intact. Obedience to parents was, in fact, repeatedly enjoined by St. Paul as a Christian duty.[188] It was regarded as a prerequisite {617} for the veneration of God. "If we do not honour and reverence our parents, whom we ought to love next to God, and whom we have almost continually before our eyes, how can we honour or reverence God, the supreme and best of parents, whom we cannot see?"[189]

[Footnote 182: _St. Matthew_, x. 34 _sq._ _St. Luke_, xii. 51 _sqq._]

[Footnote 183: Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 3 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, i. 280 _sq._).]

[Footnote 184: St. Gregory the Great, _Homiliæ in Evangelia_, xxxvii. 2 (Migne, _op. cit._ lxxvi. 1275).]

[Footnote 185: Thomas Aquinas, _Summa theologica_, ii.-ii. 101. 4.]

[Footnote 186: _St. Matthew_, xxiii. 9.]

[Footnote 187: _St. Luke_, xiv. 26.]

[Footnote 188: _Ephesians_, vi. 1 _sqq._ _Colossians_, iii. 20.]

[Footnote 189: _Catechism of the Council of Trent_, iii. 5. 1.]

Ancient, deep-rooted ideas die slowly. Whilst among Teutonic peoples the grown-up child is recognised both by custom and law as independent of the parents, and the parental authority over minors is regarded merely in the light of guardianship,[190] the Roman notions of paternal rights and filial duties have to some extent survived in Latin countries, not only through the Middle Ages, but up to the present time. "Above the majesty of the feudal baron," says M. Bernard, "that of the paternal power was held still more sacred and inviolable. However powerful the son might be, he would not have dared to outrage his father, whose authority was in his eyes always confounded with the sovereignty of command."[191] Du Vair remarks, "Nous devons tenir nos pères comme des dieux en terre."[192] Bodin wrote, in the later part of the sixteenth century, that, though the monarch commands his subjects, the master his disciples, the captain his soldiers, there is none to whom nature has given any command except the father, "who is the true image of the great sovereign God, universal father of all things."[193] According to edicts of Henry III., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV., sons could not marry before the age of thirty, nor daughters before the age of twenty-five, without the consent of the father and mother, on pain of being disinherited.[194] And even now in France considerable power is accorded to parents, not only by custom and public sentiment, but by law. A child cannot quit the paternal residence without the permission of the father before the age of twenty-one, except for enrolment {618} in the army.[195] For grave misconduct by his children the father has strong means of correction.[196] A son under twenty-five and a daughter under twenty-one could not until 1907 marry without parental consent;[197] and even when a man had attained his twenty-fifth year and a woman her twenty-first, both were still bound to ask for it, by a formal notification.[198]

[Footnote 190: Starcke, _La famille dans les différentes sociétés_, p. 213 _sqq._]

[Footnote 191: Bernard, quoted in Spencer's _Descriptive Sociology_, France, p. 38.]

[Footnote 192: Du Vair, quoted by de Ribbe, _Les familles et la société en France avant la Révolution_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 193: Bodin, _De republica_, i. 4, p. 31.]

[Footnote 194: Koenigswarter, _Histoire de l'organisation de la famille en France_, p. 231.]

[Footnote 195: _Code Civil_, art. 374.]

[Footnote 196: _Ibid._ art. 375 _sqq._]

[Footnote 197: _Ibid._ art. 148.]

[Footnote 198: _Ibid._ art. 151.]