and
to be obeyed. Duties of this class are commonly called _positive_, in
contradistinction from natural obligations. Both classes are equally
imperative on the ground of fitness; but with this difference, that in the
latter class the fitness resides in the duties themselves, in the former
it grows out of the relation between him who gives and those who receive
the command.

Section II.

Duties Of The Family.

*The inviolableness and permanence of marriage* are so absolutely
essential to the stability and well-being of families, as to be virtually
a part of the law of nature. The young of other species have but a very
brief period of dependence; while the human child advances very slowly
toward maturity, and for a considerable portion of his life needs, for
both body and mind, support, protection, and guidance from his seniors.
The separation of parents by other causes than death might leave it an
unsolvable question, to which of them the custody of their children
appertained; and in whichever way they were disposed of, their due nurture
and education would be inadequately secured. The children might be thrown
upon the mother's care, while the means of supporting them belonged
exclusively to the father. Or in the father's house they might suffer for
lack of a mother's personal attention and services; while if he contracted
a new matrimonial connection, the children of the previous marriage could
hardly fail of neglect, or even of hatred and injury, from their mother's
successful rival, especially if she had children of her own.(12)

The life-tenure of the marriage-contract contributes equally to the
*happiness of the conjugal relation*, in the aggregate. There are, no
doubt, individual cases of hardship, in which an utter and irremediable
incompatibility of temper and character makes married life a burden and a
weariness to both parties. But the cases are much more numerous, in which
discrepancies of taste and disposition are brought by time and habit into
a more comprehensive harmony, and the husband and wife, because unlike,
become only the more essential, each to the other's happiness and welfare.
Where there is sincere affection, there is little danger that lapse of
years in a permanent marriage will enfeeble it; while, were the contract
voidable at will, there might be after marriage, as often before marriage,
a series of attachments of seemingly equal ardor, each to be s