Family
Outline · 2 ›
1.The family as a natural and primal society
Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8
- p. 149–150Apollo argues the father, not the mother, is the true parent; the womb only nurses the seed, as Athena's birth proves.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 267Families are among the unions of rational animals.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 38Notes Plato's community of women in his commonwealth to mock the charge of poetic wantonness.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 320–321Enumerates parent and child, married and single among stations addressed.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 339–340Principles of human nature may be studied better in a family than in the history of the world.read · scan
Hippolyte Taine, Introduction to the History of English LiteratureVol. 39
- p. 417Forms of society and of the family are imprints of racial causes.read · scan
- p. 428The family is a natural, limited state, based on obedience of wife and children to father.read · scan
1a.The family as the origin of tribe, nation and government
See also: Race and Nationality 8b · Language 9c
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 142–145Aeneas hopes the two Troys' kindred lines will live in concord and friendship.read · scan
- p. 270Aeneas appeals to common descent from Atlas and mingled ancestral blood of Trojans and Arcadians.read · scan
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 435Lineage from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob to the twelve patriarchs, inheritance promised to seed, and Joseph's brothers' jealousy.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 170Wedded love is the source of offspring and the relations of father, son and brother.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 205The Jews all spring from one man, one flesh, a single family forming a powerful state, unlike other peoples.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 172Inheritance of liberties likened to family settlement and blood relation, binding constitution to domestic tiesread · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 418–419Kinship of blood binds the cantons as children of one home.read · scan
J. Wilson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1064Kindred, fathers and patriarch banner bind the exiles across the sea.read · scan
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 338–339Earliest society has families and patriarchs but no nations or kings, property or laws; nomadic pastoral life.read · scan
- p. 340–341The family acquires a fatherland, the cult of the house and of the tomb.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5
- p. 244–245One observer finds the safeguard of American order in the sanctity of marriage.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 472England hailed as mother of nations and heroes, a home to the thoughtful.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 81Toldos are grouped by caciques' tribes and subdivided by relationship of the owners.read · scan
Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28
- p. 227Hungarians and Ottomans celebrate ancient kindred and reunited kinsfolk, though the kinship is remote.read · scan
- p. 240Aryan nations are pictured as a family with branches, and kinship vocabulary is unavoidable, though real common blood is unproven.read · scan
- p. 240The primeval Aryans need not have been a natural family; kin might have divided among branches, like English families split between Bostons.read · scan
- p. 240–242The original group may have been an artificial union rather than a family.read · scan
- p. 244–245Natural family is the starting point of tribes and nations, enlarged by adoption, which counts as natural kindred.read · scan
- p. 246Family grew into the gens, and kindred real or artificial is the basis of all society and government.read · scan
- p. 248–249Tribes and nations are modeled on the family, kinship by blood with adoption as its legal equivalent.read · scan
- p. 249Races are groups founded on the idea of kindred, even where kinship comes only by law of adoption.read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32
- p. 140Celtic race is domestic, with strong bonds of blood, all social institutions extending the family, and duties to kin.read · scan
1b.Paternal authority as the model of political rule
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 8–9Being a good son and brother is itself a way of ruling.read · scan
- p. 9Filial and brotherly conduct is itself a way to rule, needing no office.read · scan
- p. 39Father must be father and son son for order to hold.read · scan
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 19He compares his exhorting of citizens to a father's or elder brother's care.read · scan
Plato, CritoVol. 2
- p. 38–39The laws claim parental standing: they regulated his parents' marriage and his nurture, so he is their child and slave.read · scan
Paul, The Second Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 523God promises to be a Father and believers sons and daughters.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 275Invokes Homer's father-like ruler and the phrase 'father of a family' as model for household relations.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 194Sextus's example of a household governed in a fatherly manner.read · scan
William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36
- p. 125Obedience to Rome compared to a child's obedience to his father; spiritual generation.read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 162–163The Feast of the Family: the Tirsan, patriarch of thirty descendants, settles discord, relieves distress, reproves vice and directs marriages at the state's cost.read · scan
- p. 164Ceremonial arrangement of the Feast: the Tirsan enthroned with his lineage ranged by age, and the mother of the line seated unseen.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 351Governing a family and a kingdom are different sorts of business, not degrees of prudence.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 341–342Men dwell peacefully by families and tribes under paternal rule.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 427The patriarch ruled as parent; filial obedience was the model of political obedience.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 216Paternal authority lasts only while the child needs help; then son owes respect, not obedience; father's goods bind children.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 395The mother city regarded the colony as an emancipated child owed gratitude and respect but not authority.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 211–212The king rightly feels as husband and father for his wife, children and guards.read · scan
- p. 232The state's faults should be approached like a father's wounds, with pious awe, not hacked apart by children.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 363–364Captain's authority to correct is likened to a parent's over a child and master's over apprentice.read · scan
1c.The origin of the family in a state of nature
See also: Nature 7a
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 422Animal parents rear young briefly; man's helpless offspring demand longer care, forming lasting bonds of love, gratitude and memory across generations.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 171Mother carries and nurses her child more easily than other animals; infancy and its dangers compared across species.read · scan
- p. 173–174Mothers easily carry their children, unlike other animals which must abandon their young when pursued.read · scan
- p. 180Denies primitive families lived together; mothers nursed children out of habit and affection, then they separated and forgot each other.read · scan
- p. 180–181Child, having more wants to express, must invent his own speech, since the mother has less to say to him.read · scan
- p. 193–194He did not even know his own children.read · scan
- p. 198In the first state the sexes and even mother and child parted once need ceased.read · scan
- p. 201–202Settled huts united husbands, wives and children, giving rise to conjugal and paternal love and families as little societies.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 220–221Fuegians lack home and domestic affection; husband is a brutal master over the wife, illustrated by an infant dashed on stones.read · scan
- p. 226Jemmy's reunion with mother and brothers shows no demonstration of affection, though the mother had mourned him.read · scan
1d.Family affection as the root of public feeling, and its conflicts with it
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 115–116Nothing is sweeter than a man's own country and parents, even in a rich home abroad; he refused Calypso and Circe.read · scan
- p. 163Those who hear the Sirens never see wife or children again.read · scan
- p. 211She longs to see her parents and father's house again.read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 43Uprightness means father and son screening each other, not testifying against one another.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 267Antigone defends reverence for kindred and burial of her brother against Creon's claim of enmity.read · scan
- p. 281–284Antigone's devotion to her brother above husband or children; the incest-stained curse of her father's house.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 18–20Deserters answer Psammetichos's plea about wives and children by saying they can get new ones wherever they go.read · scan
Euripides, The BacchaeVol. 8
- p. 377–378Pentheus is outraged that his wives, sisters and grandfather have joined the rites.read · scan
Plato, CritoVol. 2
- p. 33Crito argues Socrates betrays his children by leaving them to chance rather than nurturing and educating them.read · scan
- p. 39–40Violence to country is worse than violence to father or mother; disobeying the laws is like disobeying parents.read · scan
- p. 42Living for his children's sake fails: exile would deprive them of Athenian citizenship, and friends would care for them anyway.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 714–715Wife and child are counted among things subject to birth and decay, objects of ignoble craving.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 787Destroying kinsmen destroys household piety, corrupts women and castes, and denies ancestors their funeral rites.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 117Seeing Priam die, Aeneas thinks of his own father, wife and son.read · scan
- p. 232Brutus sacrifices his children's cause against the pious laws of nature.read · scan
- p. 389Latinus pleads as father-figure, Amata begs as mother for Turnus's life, and Lavinia weeps; kinship ties pull against combat.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 389–390Christ brings division within households: father against son, mother against daughter.read · scan
- p. 408–409Disciples will be betrayed by parents, brethren and kinsfolk.read · scan
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 469Disciples' wives and children walk with the travelers to the shore before returning home.read · scan
Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 165–166He takes leave of his weeping mother and wife, urging them to moderate their grief.read · scan
- p. 179Marcius embraces his mother, wife and children, moved by tears and affection despite his hardened resolve.read · scan
- p. 180Volumnia appeals as mother and threatens that he must trample her corpse before reaching his country.read · scan
- p. 180–181Volumnia invokes a child's debt to his parents; she and his wife and children fall at his feet.read · scan
Plutarch, Comparison of Alcibiades with CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 188Coriolanus yielded to his mother in private after refusing public embassies; Plutarch says he should have spared mother and country together.read · scan
Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12
- p. 208–209Consolation for afflictions in one's family is sought in the state's prosperity.read · scan
Plutarch, CiceroVol. 12
- p. 256–257The triumvirs sacrifice kin in the proscription bargain; Cicero and Quintus part with embraces.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 264Caesar refuses Sylla's demand to put away his wife Cornelia; kinship with Marius makes him suspect.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 348Octavia, wife and sister of the rival commanders, pleads that either victory would make her a loser.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 96Troops formed of families and kin; wives and mothers tend wounds and encourage warriors, spurring valour.read · scan
- p. 97Women rally faltering armies, showing their fear of captivity.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 885On judgment day man flees from brother, mother, father, spouse and sons.read · scan
- p. 965–966The note records that women who fled with Mohammed were promised equal reward, answering Umm Salma.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 277Alone, Sindbad wonders whether God will preserve him and let him return to his family and companions.read · scan
The Song of RolandVol. 49
- p. 119–121Franks think of homes, spouses and damsels; Karl weeps for his sister's son Roland.read · scan
- p. 127–128Roland refuses to shame his kindred; he forbids blaming his stepsire Ganelon.read · scan
- p. 137–138The slain Franks will never see mother or spouse again; kinsmen share Ganelon's punishment.read · scan
- p. 140–142Franks weep for their dead, hearts turning to their dear kindred.read · scan
- p. 180–182Karl laments his nephew and the loss of his kindred, unable to bear returning home.read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35
- p. 134–135Knights forsake fathers, mothers, wives and children for the fellowship of the Round Table.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 135–137The narrator's longing for his wife and children, four months absent, is eased by Hythloday's pleasant company.read · scan
- p. 215Wives, children and kin stand together in battle; coming home without kin is reproach.read · scan
William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36
- p. 125His wife urges him to yield and return to his house, children and household; domestic pull set against conscience.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 70The gunner's grief for his wife and children prevents him from firing on his own folk.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 422He fears his father and brothers may be dead or changed and that he will find no home for her.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46
- p. 63–65The prince asks to see his father; Isabella rues her lord's ill fortune yet prefers country's care.read · scan
- p. 73–74Isabella prizes her son's safety yet consents against her husband.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 271–273Edmund is torn between loyalty to Cornwall and blood ties to his father, whom he betrays.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46
- p. 340Lady Macbeth says she would have killed Duncan but he resembled her father as he slept.read · scan
- p. 369–370Lady Macduff berates her husband for abandoning wife and children; she and her son talk of a father's loss.read · scan
- p. 373Malcolm questions why Macduff left wife and child, those strong knots of love.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 77Marriage bonds hold Polyeucte: Pauline's fear of his death delays his duty.read · scan
- p. 77Polyeucte's home would be banishment without Pauline's consent.read · scan
- p. 99Pauline vows to remain faithful to her husband Polyeucte despite his conversion, torn between wifely bond and her father's wrath.read · scan
- p. 99–102Pauline pleads on her knees to her father Felix for her husband's life; he mixes paternal love with rage.read · scan
- p. 102Pauline pleads with her father Felix to save her husband; Felix disowns his traitor son-in-law.read · scan
- p. 105Felix loves his foolish son-in-law yet cannot save him without ruin.read · scan
- p. 110–111Pauline pleads as wife for Polyeucte's life and love; he places debt to God above wife and country.read · scan
- p. 115Pauline appeals to her husband's fate and to her father's power as a wife and daughter.read · scan
- p. 119–121Felix calls Polyeucte son and pleads his loss would be death to him.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415A wife should leave parents and country for her husband.read · scan
- p. 415Marriage-faith betrayed by Dalila, who put country above wedlock bands.read · scan
Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26
- p. 211–213Orgon says Tartuffe taught him to care nothing if brother, children, mother and wife died.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 21–22Christian's burden keeps him from taking pleasure in his wife and children as formerly.read · scan
- p. 26–27Christ's saying that a disciple must hate father, mother, wife and children is cited.read · scan
- p. 29–31His wife and children called him back and he stopped his ears.read · scan
- p. 298–299Joy of meeting wife and children in heaven; relations as 'second self'; Valiant's parents try to dissuade him from pilgrimage.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 328–329Nearness to home naturally produces ideas of friends and family.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 256–257He tells his wife and takes leave of family and neighbors.read · scan
- p. 269He returns to his family and friends, who feared for him, and guards against selfishness in his gladness.read · scan
Jane Elliot, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 483Women and children left heartless; lasses lament their sweethearts.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509Father, daughter, mother and babes leave home in tearful sorrow; the husband bears grief with silent manliness.read · scan
- p. 530–531Sons, sires, matrons and maids forced from their homes into exile.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 328Our public affections begin in our families.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 296–297Kin and servants are invited by reward to betray what passes in the privacy of homes.read · scan
- p. 333He appeals to defend parents, wives and children.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 363–365Mother speaks of parents' wish for his marriage; love loosens ties to father and mother when the beloved is lost.read · scan
- p. 408–410Peoples deserve respect who fought for God, laws, parents, women and children; his house and parents are in her care.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 380–381Baumgarten defends wife and household against the Seneschal's assault.read · scan
- p. 420–422They stand for home, wives and children.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On Poesy or ArtVol. 27
- p. 261–262Modern art should express motherly, sisterly and brotherly love.read · scan
Thomas Campbell, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 770–771Dream of returning to father's home, wife and children begging the soldier to stay.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 105–106Homesickness draws the girl back to her mother's house despite better treatment elsewhere.read · scan
Thomas Babington Macaulay, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 917Charon refuses to halt lest mothers know their babes and wives clasp husbands.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 364–365Private family-men adopt a public end with heat; a shock unites the nation into one family.read · scan
- p. 369–370English domesticity is the taproot of national strength; family ties, devoted wives, courtship and the home as the end of trade and empire.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1314–1315Households uprooted; women, children and her aged father in the procession, whom she embraces and comforts.read · scan
- p. 1315–1316Wives torn from husbands, mothers separated from children in the embarkation; Basil and Gabriel carried to separate ships.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 502–503Slaves' wives and children torn away and sold like beasts shows the cruelty of severing family bonds.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 976–977Ulysses's son and aged wife and household gods left behind.read · scan
- p. 995–996They remember wedded lives and wives' embraces but fear their households have changed, their sons inheriting them.read · scan
- p. 1010–1011Mother calls after her son Willy's voice in the windread · scan
William Edmondstoune Aytoun, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 917–918Charon refuses to halt lest mothers recognize their babes and wives clasp husbands, making separation from kin impossible.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 40The night before he died George spoke to a boy about his mother and family at home.read · scan
- p. 162Letters and newspapers from home are read again and again, giving delight and a feeling of being at home.read · scan
- p. 248Sailors' feelings for home and friends surface only for a moment before the routine returns.read · scan
- p. 267Dana and S return to their families and the society they were raised in.read · scan
- p. 351Coming back to homes, the signs of civilization and happiness stir the crew.read · scan
- p. 354News that friends are well; sailor's brother brings news of home and rouses him to go there.read · scan
Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1406–1408Mothers, wives and daughters are called to move united in the ranks.read · scan
Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28
- p. 272Feeling once confined to the household extends outward to tribe, city, nation and race.read · scan
Outline · 2 ›