ement was required, in addition to that of his parents. The adoption
was sometimes prompted by an interested motive, and not merely by the
desire for posterity or its semblance. Labour was expensive, slaves were
scarce, and children, by working for their father, took the place of
hired servants, and were content, like them, with food and clothing. The
adoption of adults was, therefore, most frequent in ancient times. The
introduction of a person into a fresh household severed the ties which
bound him to the old one; he became a stranger to those who had borne
him; he had no filial obligations to discharge to them, nor had he
any right to whatever property they might possess, unless, indeed, any
unforeseen circumstance prevented the carrying out of the agreement, and
legally obliged him to return to the status of his birth. In return, he
undertook all the duties and enjoyed the privileges of his new position;
he owed to his adopted parents the same amount of work, obedience, and
respect that he would have given to his natural parents; he shared
in their condition, whether for good or ill, and he inherited their
possessions. Provision was made for him in case of his repudiation by
those who had adopted him, and they had to make him compensation: he
received the portion which would have accrued to him after their death,
and he then left them. Families appear to have been fairly united, in
spite of the elasticity of the laws which governed them, and of the
divers elements of which they were sometimes composed. No doubt polygamy
and frequently divorce exercised here as elsewhere a deleterious
influence; the harems of Babylon were constantly the scenes of endless
intrigues and quarrels among the women and children of varied condition
and different parentage who filled them. Among the people of the middle
classes, where restricted means necessarily prevented a man having
many wives, the course of family life appears to have been as calm
and affectionate as in Egypt, under the unquestioned supremacy of the
father: and in the event of his early death, the widow, and later the
son or son-in-law, took the direction of affairs. Should quarrels arise
and reach the point of bringing about a complete rupture between parents
and children, the law intervened, not to reconcile them, but to repress
any violence of which either side might be guilty towards the other.
It was reckoned as a misdemeanour for any father or mother to disown a
chil