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 absolute
authority over the child--the right of life and death, as over
his servants or slaves; but this was restricted under the Empire,
and in all Christian nations the authority of the father is
treated, like all power, as a trust. The child, like the father
himself, belongs to the state, and to the state the father is
answerable for the use he makes of his authority. The law fixes
the age of majority, when the child is completely emancipated;
and even during his nonage, takes him from the father and places
him under guardians, in case the father is incompetent to fulfil
or grossly abuses his trust. This is proper, because society
contributes to the life of the child, and has a right as well as
an interest in him. Society, again, must suffer if the child is
allowed to grow up a worthless vagabond or a criminal; and has a
right to intervene, both in behalf of itself and of the child, in
case his parents neglect to train him up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord, or are training him up to be a liar, a
thief, a drunkard, a murderer, a pest to the community. How,
then, base the right of society on the right of the father,
since, in point of fact, the right of society is paramount to the
right of the parent?

But even waiving this, and granting what is not the fact that the