[1083] Concio sia cosa chè se bene senza il congiungimento dell’uomo e della donna non si può il genere umano moltiplicarsi, non dimeno la moltitudine di congiungimenti non è sola causa della moltiplicazione; si ricerca oltre di ciò, la cura d’allevarli, e la commodità di sustentarli; senza la quale o muojono innanzi tempo, o riescono inutili, e di poco giovimento alla patria lib. viii. p. 284.
[1084] Ibid. Ricercandosi due cose per la propagazione de popoli, la generazione et l’educazione, se bene la moltitudine de matrimonj ajuta forte l’una, impedisce però del sicuro l’altro.
Paruta. 44. Paolo Paruta, in his Discorsi Politici, Venice, 1599, is perhaps less vigorous and acute than Botero; yet he may be reckoned among judicious writers on general politics. The first book of these discourses relates to Roman, the second chiefly to modern history. His turn of thinking is independent and unprejudiced by the current tide of opinion, as when he declares against the conduct of Hannibal in invading Italy. Paruta generally states both sides of a political problem very fairly, as in one of the most remarkable of his discourses, where he puts the famous question on the usefulness of fortified towns. His final conclusion is favourable to them. He was a subject of Venice, and after holding considerable offices, was one of those historians employed by the Senate, whose writings form the series entitled Istorici Veneziani.
Bodin. 45. John Bodin, author of several other less valuable works, acquired so distinguished a reputation by his Republic, published in French in 1577, and by himself in Latin, with many additions in 1586,[1085] and has in fact so far outstripped the political writers of his own period, that I shall endeavour to do justice to his memory by something like an analysis of this treatise, which is far more known by name than generally read. Many have borne testimony to his extraordinary reach of learning and reflection. “I know of no political writer of the same period,” says Stewart, “whose extensive, and various, and discriminating reading appear to me to have contributed more to facilitate and guide the researches of his successors, or whose references to ancient learning have been more frequently transcribed without acknowledgment.”[1086]
[1085] This treatise, in its first edition, made so great an impression, that when Bodin came to England in the service of the Duke of Alençon, he found it explained by lecturers both in London and Cambridge, but not, as has sometimes been said, in the public schools of the university. This put him upon translating it into Latin himself, to render its fame more European. See Bayle, who has a good article on Bodin. I am much inclined to believe that the perusal of Bodin had a great effect in England. He is not perhaps very often quoted, and yet he is named with honour by the chief writers of the next age; but he furnished a store, both of arguments and of examples, which were not lost on the thoughtful minds of our countrymen.
Grotius, who is not very favourable to Bodin, though of necessity he often quotes the Republic, imputes to him incorrectness as to facts, which in some cases raises a suspicion of ill-faith. Epist. cccliii. It would require a more close study of Bodin than I have made, to judge of the weight of this charge.
[1086] Dissertation on the Progress of Philosophy, p. 40. Stewart, however, thinks Bodin became so obscure that he makes an apology for the space he has allotted to the Republic, though not exceeding four pages. He was better known in the seventeenth century than at present.
Analysis of his treatise called The Republic. 46. What is the object of political society? Bodin begins by inquiring. The greatest good, he answers, of every citizen, which is that of the whole state. And this he places in the exercise of the virtues proper to man, and in the knowledge of things natural, human, and divine. But as all have not agreed as to the chief good of a single man, nor whether the good of individuals be also that of the state, this has caused a variety of laws and customs according to the humours and passions of rulers. This first chapter is in a more metaphysical tone than we usually find in Bodin. He proceeds in the next to the rights of families (jus familiare), and to the distinction between a family and a commonwealth. |Authority of heads of families.| A family is the right government of many persons under one head, as a commonwealth is that of many families.[1087] Patriarchal authority he raises high, both marital and paternal, on each subject pouring out a vast stream of knowledge: nothing that sacred and profane history, the accounts of travellers, or the Roman lawyers could supply, ever escapes the comprehensive researches of Bodin.[1088] He intimates his opinion in favour of the right of repudiation, one of the many proofs that he paid more regard to the Jewish than the Christian law,[1089] and vindicates the full extent of the paternal power in the Roman republic, deducing the decline of the empire from its relaxation.
[1087] Familia est plurium sub unius ac ejusdem patris familias imperium subditorum, earumque rerum quæ ipsius propria sunt, recta moderatio. He has an odd theory, that a family must consist of five persons, in which he seems to have been influenced by some notions of the jurists, that three families may constitute a republic, and that fifteen persons are also the minimum of a community.
[1088] Cap. iii. 34. Bodin here protests against the stipulation sometimes made before marriage, that the wife shall not be in the power of the husband; “agreements so contrary to divine and human laws, that they cannot be endured, nor are they to be observed even when ratified by oath, since no oath in such circumstances can be binding.”