otic
nation, and must either find or create civilization, which has been
developed from the patriarchal system by way of transformation.

But, though the patriarchal system is the earliest form of government,
and all governments have been developed or modified from it, the right
of government to govern cannot be deduced from the right of the father
to govern his children, for the parental right itself is not ultimate
or complete. All governments that assume it to be so, and rest on it
as the foundation of their authority, are barbaric or despotic, and,
therefore, without any legitimate authority. The right to govern rests
on ownership or dominion. Where there is no proprietorship, there is
no dominion; and where there is no dominion, there is no right to
govern. Only he who is sovereign proprietor is sovereign lord.

Property, ownership, dominion rests on creation. The maker has the
right to the thing made. He, so far as he is sole creator, is sole
proprietor, and may do what he will with it. God is sovereign lord and
proprietor of the universe because He is its sole creator. He hath the
absolute dominion, because He is absolute maker. He has made it, He
owns it; and one may do what he will with his own. His dominion is
absolute, because He is absolute creator, and He rightly governs as
absolute and universal lord; yet is He no despot, because He exercises
only His sovereign right, and His own essential wisdom, goodness,
justness, rectitude, and immutability, are the highest of all
conceivable guaranties that His exercise of His power will always be
right, wise, just, and good. The despot is a man attempting to be God
upon earth, and to exercise a usurped power. Despotism is based on,
the parental right, and the parental right is assumed to be absolute.
Hence, your despotic rulers claim to reign, and to be loved and
worshipped as gods. Even the Roman emperors, in the fourth and fifth
centuries, were addressed as divinities; and Theodosius the Great, a
Christian, was addressed as "Your Eternity," Eternitas vestras--so far
did barbarism encroach on civilization, even under Christian emperors.

The right of the father over his child is an imperfect right, for he is
the generator, not the creator of his child. Generation is in the
order of second causes, and is simply the development or explication of
the race. The early Roman law, founded on the confusion of generation
with creation, gave the father absolut