In the course of human history associations of every type have come into existence; many still continue to flourish while others merely abode their little hour and went their way. The organizations which we have today, including the family, the school, the church, the community, the state, are among those that have survived. Those that succumbed during the long journey down the ages would make a formidable list. Who ever hears nowadays of the totem-kin, the clan, or the gens? Where do we now find tribunes, praetors, augurs, and triumvirates? Absolute monarchy, as a form of government, once held sway over most of the world. But democratic government entered into competition with it, and as there was not room enough for both, one crowded the other off the stage. The great mediaeval institution of feudalism dominated the rural life of Europe for more than five hundred years, but the last relics of feudal tenure have practically all been swept away. The trade guilds of the olden days, the orders of nobility, the crowns and coronets, the soothsayers and the alchemists—all of them have disappeared or are rapidly disappearing. The beaches of history are strewn with the wrecks of social and political institutions. Some others, like the hereditary peerages of a few European countries, are barely able to keep afloat. The institutions which survive and flourish are the ones that have been found best fitted to survive.
Importance of the family.
The Fundamental Social Group.—In human society the foundation-group is the family. Human beings are social by nature; the motive which draws people together is so universal that we call it a natural instinct. Individuals do not live in isolation. Nobody leads the hermit type of life if he can avoid it. Robinson Crusoe was not on his little island because he wanted to be there. Even among the least civilized races of men, among savage tribes, there is a grouping of men, women, and children on the basis of blood relationship. The family, as a unit, is older than either the state or the community. It is the foundation upon which other groups and organizations have been built, hence it is rightly called the “social microcosm” or basis of society.
The function of the family.
The primary function of the family is to keep the human race in existence. Its first duty is the rearing of children so that a new generation may take the place of the old. Other duties that belong to the family may be handed over to the school (the duty of secular education) or to the church (the duty of religious instruction); but the primary function of the family, that of perpetuating the race, is one which cannot be transferred.
The whole stream of human life flows through the family organization. The same virtues which make for harmony in the household,—obedience, co-operation, loyalty, and service,—are the ones which mark good citizenship; therefore the home is the primary school of all the civic virtues. For this reason the collapse of the home and of home life would be nothing short of a human catastrophe.
THE FAMILY. By Charles Sprague Pearce
From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission.
THE FAMILY