body decaying and diminishing. On the nature of the Family; on its
profound physiological origins; on its necessary role in the
prolongation and "perpetuation of the individual" by affording him
"the sole remedy for death"; on its primitive constitution among men
of our own race; on its historic organization and development "around
the family home"; on the necessity of its subsistence and continuance
in order to insure the duration of this home; on its other needs, M.
Taine, with his knowledge of man and of his history, had given a good
deal of thought to fundamental ideas analogous to those which he has
consecrated to the classic spirit, to the origin of honor and
conscience, to the essence of local society, so many stones, as it
were, shaped by him from time to time and deeply implanted as the
foundations of his criticism of institutions. Having set forth the
proper character and permanent wants of the Family he was able to
study the legislation affecting it, and, first, "the Jacobin laws on
marriage, divorce, paternal authority and on the compulsory public
education of children; next, the Napoleonic laws, those which still
govern us, the Civil Code" with that portion of it in which the
equality and leveling spirit is preserved, along with "its tendency to
regard property as a means of enjoyment" instead of the starting-point
and support of "an enduring institution." - Having exposed the system,
M. Taine meant to consider its effects, those of surrounding
institutions, and to describe the French family as it now exists. He
had first studied the "tendency to marriage"; he had considered the
motives which, in general, weaken or fortify it, and appreciated those
now absent and now active in France. According to him, "the healthy
ideal of every young man is to found a family, a house of infinite
duration, to create and to rule." Why in modern France does he give
his thoughts to "pleasure and of excelling in his career"? Why does he
regard marriage "without enthusiasm, as a last measure, as a