The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature

Chap. 3. Duty of Parents and Children,

according to the law of nature 179 all Cases of Distress; moreover, That they prudently accommodatetheir Humours to each other; in which Matter, it is the Wife’s Duty to submit. u c h a p t e r i i i u Duty of Parents and Children From Matrimony proceeds Posterity,13 which is subjected to the Paternal Power, *the most Ancient and the most Sacred Kind of Authority , whereby Children are obliged to reverence their Parents, to obey their Commands, and to acknowledge their Pre-eminence. The Authority of Parents over their Children, hath its chief Foundation on a Twofold Cause. First, Because the Law of Nature it self, when Man was made a Sociable Creature, injoin’d to Parents the Care of their Children; and lest they should herein be negligent, Nature implanted in them a most tender Affection for their Issue. Now that this Care may be rightly managed, it is requisite that they have a Power of ordering the Actions of their Children for their Good; because these, as yet, understand not, for want of Discretion, how to govern themselves. Next, This Authority is also grounded on the tacit Consent of their Offspring. For it may fairly be presum’d, that if an Infant, at the Time of its Birth, had the Use of its Reason, and saw that its Life could not be preserv’d without the Care of the Parents, to which must be join’d a Power over it self, it would readily consent to the same, and desire for it self a comfortable Education from them. And this Power is actually 13. Children. I. Paternal Authority. L. N. N. l. 6. c. 2. II. Its Foundation Twofold. *Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, l. 2. c. 5. §1, &c. 180 the whole duty of man in the Parents, then when they breed and nurse up the Child, and form him as well as they can, that he may become a fit Member of Human Society. But whereas the Mother concurs no less than the Father to the Generation of Children, and so the Offspring is common to both, it may be inquir’d, Which hath the greatest Right thereto? Concerning which Point we are to distinguish: For if the Issue were begotten not in Matrimony, the same shall be rather the Mother’s, because here the Father cannot be known, except the Mother discover him. Among those also who live in a State of Natural Liberty, and above Laws, it may be agreed, that the Mother’s Claim shall be preferr’d to that of the Father. But in Communities ,14 which have their Formation from Men, the Matrimonial Contract regularly commencing on the Man’s Side, and he becoming the Head of the Family, the Father’s Right shall take Place, so as though the Child is to pay the Mother all Reverence and Gratitude, yet is it not obliged to obey her, when she bids that to be done which is contrary to the just Commands of the Father. Yet upon the Father’s Decease, his Authority over his Child, especially if not of Age, seems to devolve upon the Mother, and if she marry again, it passes to the Step-Father, he being esteemed to succeed to the Trust and Care of a Natural Father. And he who shall allow liberal Education to an Orphan or a forsaken Child, shall have a Right to exact filial Obedience from the same. But that we may handle more accurately the Power of Parents over their Children, we must distinguish, first, between Patriarchs, or Chiefs of independent Families; and such as are Members of a Community;15 and then betwixt the Power of a Father, as Father, and his Power as Head of his Family. And whereas it is injoyn’d by Nature to a Father as such, That he bring up his Children well, in order to render ’em fit Members of Human Society, so long as ’till they can take Care of themselves; 14. Again, in Pufendorf this is “state” (civitas) and in Barbeyrac Sociétez Civiles. 15. Tooke’s “Members of a Community” evades the political force of Pufendorf’s original “who have submitted to the state” (qui in civitatem subierunt). III. Which Parent has greater Right. L. N. N. l. 6. c. 2. §4. IV. Paternal Authority distinguish ’d. L. N. N. l. 6. c. 2. §6. according...