y rose to that pitch of
grandeur related in history; by what ties families and cities were united,
in order to constitute one body or society, and to live together under the
same laws and a common authority; it will be necessary to trace things
back, in a manner, to the infancy of the world, and to those ages in which
mankind, being dispersed into different regions, (after the confusion of
tongues,) began to people the earth.

In these early ages every father was the supreme head of his family; the
arbiter and judge of whatever contests and divisions might arise within
it; the natural legislator over his little society; the defender and
protector of those, who, by their birth, education, and weakness, were
under his protection and safeguard, and whose interests paternal
tenderness rendered equally dear to him as his own.

But although these masters enjoyed an independent authority, they made a
mild and paternal use of it. So far from being jealous of their power,
they neither governed with haughtiness, nor decided with tyranny. As they
were obliged by necessity to associate their family in their domestic
labours, they also summoned them together, and asked their opinion in
matters of importance. In this manner all affairs were transacted in
concert, and for the common good.

The laws which paternal vigilance established in this little domestic
senate, being dictated with no other view than to promote the general
welfare; concerted with such children as were come to years of maturity,
and accepted by the inferiors with a full and free consent; were
religiously kept and preserved in families as an hereditary polity, to
which they owed their peace and security.

But different motives gave rise to different laws. One man, overjoyed at
the birth of a first-born son, resolved to distinguish him from his future
children, by bestowing on him a more considerable share of his
possessions, and giving him a greater authority in his family. Another,
more attentive to the interest of a beloved wife, or darling daughter whom
he wanted to settle in the world, thought it incumbent on him to secure
their rights and increase their advantages. The solitary and cheerless
state to which a wife would be reduced in case she should become a widow,
affected more intimately another man, and made him provide beforehand, for
the subsistence and comfort of a woman who formed his felicity. From these
different views, and others of the like nature,