第121章 BOOK XI(9)

Greater differences than there ought to be sometimes arise betweenfathers and sons, on the part either of fathers who will be of opinionthat the legislator should enact that they may, if they wish, lawfullyrenounce their son by the proclamation of a herald in the face ofthe world, or of sons who think that they should be allowed toindict their fathers on the charge of imbecility when they aredisabled by disease or old age. These things only happen, as amatter of fact, where the natures of men are utterly bad; for whereonly half is bad, as, for example, if the father be not bad, but theson be bad, or conversely, no great calamity is the result of suchan amount of hatred as this. In another state, a son disowned by hisfather would not of necessity cease to be a citizen, but in our state,of which these are to be the laws, the disinherited must necessarilyemigrate into another country, for no addition can be made even of asingle family to the 5040 households; and, therefore, he whodeserves to suffer these things must be renounced not only by hisfather, who is a single person, but by the whole family, and what isdone in these cases must be regulated by some such law as thefollowing:-He who in the sad disorder of his soul has a mind, justlyor unjustly, to expel from his family a son whom he has begotten andbrought up, shall not lightly or at once execute his purpose; butfirst of all he shall collect together his own kinsmen extending tocousins, and in like manner his son"s kinsmen by the mother"s side,and in their presence he shall accuse his son, setting forth that hedeserves at the hands of them all to be dismissed from the family; andthe son shall be allowed to address them in a similar manner, and showthat he does not deserve to suffer any of these things. And if thefather persuades them, and obtains the suffrages of more than halfof his kindred, exclusive of the father and mother and the offenderhimself-I say, if he obtains more than half the suffrages of all theother grown-up members of the family, of both sexes, the fathershall be permitted to put away his son, but not otherwise. And ifany other citizen is willing to adopt the son who is put away, nolaw shall hinder him; for the characters of young men are subject tomany changes in the course of their lives. And if he has been putaway, and in a period of ten years no one is willing to adopt him, letthose who have the care of the superabundant population which issent out into colonies, see to him, in order that he may be suitablyprovided for in the colony. And if disease or age or harshness oftemper, or all these together, makes a man to be more out of hismind than the rest of the world are-but this is not observable, exceptto those who live with him-and he, being master of his property, isthe ruin of the house, and his son doubts and hesitates aboutindicting his father for insanity, let the law in that case or, thathe shall first of all go to the eldest guardians of the law and tellthem of his father"s misfortune, and they shall duly look into thematter, and take counsel as to whether he shall indict him or not. Andif they advise him to proceed, they shall be both his witnesses andhis advocates; and if the father is cast, he shall henceforth beincapable of ordering the least particular of his life; let him beas a child dwelling in the house for the remainder of his days. And ifa man and his wife have an unfortunate incompatibility of temper,ten of the guardians of the law, who are impartial, and ten of thewomen who regulate marriages, shall look to the matter, and if theyare able to reconcile them they shall be formally reconciled; but iftheir souls are too much tossed with passion, they shall endeavourto find other partners. Now they are not likely to have very gentletempers; and, therefore, we must endeavour to associate with themdeeper and softer natures. Those who have no children, or only afew, at the time of their separation, should choose their new partnerswith a view to the procreation of children; but those who have asufficient number of children should separate and marry again in orderthat they may have some one to grow old with and that the pair maytake care of one another in age. If a woman dies, leaving children,male or female, the law will advise rather than compel the husbandto bring up the children without introducing into the house astepmother. But if he have no children, then he shall be compelledto marry until he has begotten a sufficient number of sons to hisfamily and to the state. And if a man dies leaving a sufficient numberof children, the mother of his children shall remain with them andbring, them up. But if she appears to be too young to livevirtuously without a husband, let her relations communicate with thewomen who superintend marriage, and let both together do what theythink best in these matters; if there is a lack of children, let thechoice be made with a view to having them; two children, one of eithersex, shall be deemed sufficient in the eye of the law. When a child isadmitted to be the offspring of certain parents and is acknowledged bythem, but there is need of a decision as to which parent the childis to follow-in case a female slave have intercourse with a maleslave, or with a freeman or freedman, the offspring shall alwaysbelong to the master of the female slave. Again, if a free womanhave intercourse with a male slave, the offspring shall belong tothe master of the slave; but if a child be born either of a slave byher master, or of his mistress by a slave-and this be provenceoffspring of the woman and its father shall be sent away by thewomen who superintend marriage into another country, and the guardiansof the law shall send away the offspring of the man and its mother.