began its theory in itself; the one leads to the oppression of the many by the few; and the other to the oppression of the few by the many. In neither view are there any rights in the true sense of the term; according to the first, all rights are in the monarch; according to the second, in an imaginary entity called the people; in both the actual government could do as it pleased, since on the one theory it represented God, and on the other, the people. But this inquiry will not be prosecuted here, as it will more appropriately come up hereafter, when we come to treat of the State.

Enough has been said to show that society is a divine organization, ordained of God, and hence existing, like life, of necessity, independent of human volition and agency. In this view it is clothed with rights, and laid under duties. Its mission is to aid in the divine work of educating, teaching, and guiding God's moral creation. Its rights and its duties are limited, not absolute; it can execute God's laws, not violate them. It is a society within a government, organized in aid of the aims and purposes of that government, and hence subordinate and responsible to it.

It has been seen that the duties of society are subordinate to the divine law. Hence its duties are all remedial; look to the recovery of humanity from its ignorance and wrong-doing. It is to exert an influence for this end, and for this end alone.

Society may be considered as unorganized, and as organized; as having no authority, or as having authority; as being without power, or as being clothed with power. In the latter form, society constitutes the State, of which government is its organization. Under the first classification, we shall consider those duties which grow up out of man's social relations. The individual owes duties to society, and society owes duties to him. The term society is here used to describe a number of individuals, larger than the family, who are thrown together, and hence are compelled in some respects to act together for the great purposes of man's moral regeneration. Society in this sense grows out of the family into the

tribe, or community, and in the end grows into the State, and becomes organized into a government. If there was no lawlessness among men, if all obeyed the divine law, society would still exist, but not the State. It is in this view we wish now to look at society, and point out its duties towards its members in carrying on this great work of educating, teaching and governing humanity. Under this head will come the family, with all its important relations, education, teaching, support, the great duties of society. Society has no power as a society to coerce obedience; the State possesses this power, and is organized for this purpose. In what we now propose to say, we only look to the rights and duties, and not to a power for enforcing them; we now inquire only as to what the moral law is in the relations of society; the mode in which these laws may be enforced, is a matter for subsequent discussion; it is involved in a consideration of the State.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE FAMILY.

IT will be admitted that the nurture and cultivation of the human race comes within the plan of the divine government and of the creation. God, when he plans to perpetuate the human species by generation, and to send each human soul into the world in its present condition, must provide means for its nurture and education; to suppose otherwise would be an impeachment of the divine goodness. God, then, has provided some one or more, whose duty it is to receive each human being on its entrance into life and provide for its nurture and education.

The child comes into the world physically incapable of providing for its physical wants; without aid it cannot survive its birth. It must, then, have this aid, and it must have a right to it; and a right, on its part, implies a duty on the part of some one else.

The child also comes into the world ignorant; its mind entirely a blank and its spirit undeveloped. Nature will of necessity call into exercise its capacities for sensation and perception, and hence excite the understanding to action, since this is conversant with all notions which come through sensation and are derived from a consideration of them by the mind itself. In this respect man is the most perfect of animals. He has understanding in common with the brutes, though the human understanding is of a much higher order than that of the brute. Still the brute can reason on mat

ters of sensation as well as man; he can recollect facts and draw conclusions from them. The dog can be taught much. He can be taught to restrain his appetite in obedience to authority, and this, too, in the absence of that authority. Mr. Livingstone, in his travels in Southern Africa, says that elephants will move with caution where pitfalls are usually to be found; that they will seek for them, and throw off the covering which conceals them, so that the younger ones may avoid them; that they will move off in single file on leaving the water, so that there may be less risk, the oldest leading the column and exploring the way. This is an exercise of the logical faculty of the understanding, of remembering prior facts, and drawing inferences how best to avoid danger depending upon these facts. There is much of science limited to the understanding and the notions formed within it. So, too, is the logical faculty developed within the understanding as well in brutes as men. In the former we see but the very faintest developmentsthe first steps of it; still it must be there in order to account for numerous well authenticated facts in the natural history of the animal kingdom below man. Man has, then, these faculties in common with the brute, and their development is not dependent upon education or the will, but upon nature, which will act and does act independent of both; though any high development of the understanding cannot be obtained without education and teaching; the mind is rendered more active, more observing, more minute, and more accurate by education, and led to new objects also.

But man has more than this; to his understanding, as thus defined, is superadded the spirit, reason, the soul, as all these terms mean substantially the same thing. Man is more than an animal; he has an intellectual and moral nature added to his animal nature. He can form general laws, ideas, construct sciences, know God and feel the force of obligation and duty. It may be difficult to discriminate accurately what man has in common with

the brute, and what is peculiar to humanity; but still the distinction exists, and in most respects stands out palpably and distinctly. All man's moral nature is clearly peculiar to humanity; his ability to form ideas of an unseen Being, of His character, His laws, and of man's relation to them, are man's prerogative; so, too, must be his capacity for science, for forming ideas of the laws by which God created and governs matter. In this aspect of man he is allied to Deity, is created in its image. These capacities can never be called into exercise by nature; they are developed by ideas, received into the spirit from other spirits, and finally from the Great Spirit, God Himself. This development of the spirit and intellect cannot take place without education and teaching. To secure this development is the object of every other influence and of all means. The spirit is that for which all else was created, and its perfection is that end, to which all else is in God's arrangement but means. This being the case, God could not fail to throw upon some one the duty of receiving and training this immortal spirit for its work here on earth, and its employments in an anticipated future. God could never have left so important a matter unprovided for.

Christianity of course answers this question very distinctly; does God, through nature, speak any the less distinctly? We think not. The fact that the parents of each human being have universally attended to this duty is pretty decided evidence that it is founded in the laws of nature, and depends upon no conventionalism, or human compact, or arrangement, or teaching. It must have a more fixed basis than these to be so universal, amid such a variety of circumstance and condition. What, then, are the facts upon which nature necessitates the family? or, to speak more accurately, what are the conditions under which God has placed humanity, so that the family is a necessity?

The first fact is the distinction of sexes. The perpetuation of the race is made a natural appetite, as much as eating; an appe