PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

BOOK VI.
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.Elemel1tj if Political Knowledge.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE ORIGIN OF CIVIL G01TERNMENT.
GOVERNl\IE:NT, at first, was either patriarchal
or military: that of a parent over his family,
or of a cOlnmander over his fellow ,,:-arriors.
I. Paternal authority, and the order of domestic
life, supplied the foundation of ci:vil government. Did
mankind spring out of the earth mature and independent,
it would be found perhaps ilnpossible to introduce
subjection and subordination anlong them;
but tIle condition of hUl11an infancy prepares men
for society, by combining individuals hto ~mall com ..
1l1unities, and by placing them, from the beginning,
under direction and control. A fam:Iy contains the
rudiments of an empire. The authority of one over
nlany, and the disposition to gover£} and to be governed,
are in this way incidental, t.) the very nature,
and coeval, no doubt, with the e,.:istellce of the hu ..
man species.
l\tIoreover, the ccnstitution of farrii.
lies not only assists the forma~ion of civil govern ..
nlent, by the dispositions which it generates, but
also furnishes the first sters of the precess by
which empires have been actnally reared.
A parent
would retain a conFiderable part of hi:; authority af.
ter his childrzn had grown up, and nad formed
families of their own. 'fhe obedience, of w'hich
they remembered not the beginning, would be con.
sidered as natural; and would scarcely;--during the
parent's life, be er.tirely or abruptly withdrawn.
Here then we see ~hc second stage in the progress of