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508 u c h a p t e r v u Of the Original Acquisition of a Right over Persons; where also is treated of the Right of Parents: Of Marriages: Of Societies: Of the Right over Subjects: Over Slaves. I. We have a Right, not only over Things, but over Persons too, and this Right is 1 originally derived from Generation, from Consent, fromsome Crime. By Generation, 2 Parents, both Father and Mother, acquire a Right over their Children; but if their Commands should 3 run counter, I. (1) That is, so that the Person over whom a Right is acquired, was not before dependent on any one; for if he was, the Acquisition is then Derivative, as that made of Goods which before belonged to another. The Author treats of the latter Sort in the following Chapters, both in Regard to Things and Persons. 2. See my first Note on Pufendorf, B. VI. Chap. II. § 4. 3. Seneca maintains, that the Father hath the first Right, over his Children, and the Mother the second, Controv. Lib. III. Controv. XIX (p. 255. Edit. Elziv. 1672.) St. Chrysostomlikewise establishes thisInequality,whenhesays,itisjustandreasonable that the Wife should be subject to her Husband, because an Equality of Authority, over the same Persons, produces Strife and Contention. In I. ad Corinth. xi. 3. He elsewhere allows the Wife to be the second Power in a Family; but neither allows her, on one Hand, to claim an Equality of Power, because she is subject to a Head; nor the Husband , on the other, to despise his Wife, as being subject to him, because she is one Body with him. In Ephes. vi. To which he adds a little after, This (the Power of the Wife) is a second Power, attended with Authority, and a great Share of Honour; but still the Husband hassomewhatmore. St.Augustin,writingtoEcdicia, asksherthisQuestion, Who doth not know that your Son, because born of lawful and honest Wedlock, is more in the Power of his Father than in yours? Epist. CXCIX. Edit. Basil. 1569. One of the Byzantine Historians, speaking of Andronicus Palaeologus and Irene, observes that, I. The Right of Parents over Children. acquisition of a right over persons 509 the Father’s Authority is to be preferred in Regard to the Dignity of the Sex. II. 1. And here in Children, three Seasons are to be carefully observed and distinguished. The first Season, that tou ÷ bouleutikou ÷ a ◊telou ÷c, of 1 imperfect Judgment, as Aristotle speaks, when they have no proaíresin 2 Discretion, as he elsewhere calls it. The second Season, that of ripe Judgment , whilst the Child is yet a Member of the Parent’s Family, e¤wc a ‹n mh ’ xwrisjh ÷, 3 as long as he is not separated or gone from it, as the same Aristotle expresses it. The third, when he has left that Family. In the first Season, 4 all the Actions of Children are under the Government and Direction of their Parents; for it is but reasonable, that he who cannot rule himself, should be ruled by some Body else. It is Aeschylus’sOpinion and Observation, Aetas prima, &c. 5 Children not having the Use of Reason , and being like the Brutes, need to be educated and conducted by the Reason of another. And none but Parents are naturally intrustedwiththis Charge. among other Reasons, it was urged, that A Father has more Power than a Mother, and that there was no Reason why the Father’s Will, in Regard to his Child, should not take Place, even preferably to that of the Mother. Nicephorus Gregoras, Lib. VII. Concerning the Respect due to a Mother. See Code, Lib. VIII. Tit. XI.VII. De Patriâ Protestate, Leg. IV. Grotius. II. (1) Politic. Lib. I. Cap. XIII. p. 3111. Edit. Paris. 2. Ethic. Nicom. Lib. III. Cap. IV. 3. The Philosopher considers a Son during that Time as a Part of his Father; whence he infers, that the Father is not allowed to commit any Injustice against him. Ibid. Lib. V. Cap. X. 4. At that Age Children belong to their Parents, in the same Manner as theirother Possessions, says Maimonides, Can. Poenitential. Cap. VI. § 2. Grotius. 5. The Author quotes this Passage in Latin only, according to his own Version of it, in the Excerpta ex Tragoed. & Comoed. Graecis, p. 34. In the Original it standsthus, ———To ’ mh ’ fronou ÷n ga ’r, w ÿ sperei ’ boto ’n, Tréfein a ◊nágkh (pw ÷ c gar ou ⁄;) tro...

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