by nature as free as himself, or any of his ancestors ever were, may,
whilst they are in that freedom, choose what society they will join
themselves to, what common-wealth they will put themselves under. But if
they will enjoy the inheritance of their ancestors, they must take it on
the same terms their ancestors had it, and submit to all the conditions
annexed to such a possession. By this power indeed fathers oblige their
children to obedience to themselves, even when they are past minority,
and most commonly too subject them to this or that political power: but
neither of these by any peculiar right of fatherhood, but by the reward
they have in their hands to inforce and recompence such a compliance; and
is no more power than what a French man has over an English man, who by
the hopes of an estate he will leave him, will certainly have a strong
tie on his obedience: and if, when it is left him, he will enjoy it, he
must certainly take it upon the conditions annexed to the possession of
land in that country where it lies, whether it be France or England.
Sec. 74. To conclude then, tho' the father's power of commanding
extends no farther than the minority of his children, and to a degree
only fit for the discipline and government of that age; and tho' that
honour and respect, and all that which the Latins called piety, which
they indispensably owe to their parents all their life-time, and in all
estates, with all that support and defence is due to them, gives the
father no power of governing, i.e. making laws and enacting penalties on
his children; though by all this he has no dominion over the property or
actions of his son: yet it is obvious to conceive how easy it was, in the
first ages of the world, and in places still, where the thinness of
people gives families leave to separate into unpossessed quarters, and
they have room to remove or plant themselves in yet vacant habitations,
for the father of the family to become the prince of* it; he had been a
ruler from the beginning of the infancy of his children: and since
without some government it would be hard for them to live together, it