The despot is a man attempting
to be God upon earth, and to exercise a usurped power. Despotism
is based on, the parental right, and the parental right is
assumed to be absolute. Hence, your despotic rulers claim to
reign, and to be loved and worshipped as gods. Even the Roman
emperors, in the fourth and fifth centuries, were addressed as
divinities; and Theodosius the Great, a Christian , was addressed
as "Your Eternity," Eternitas vestras--so far did barbarism
encroach on civilization, even under Christian emperors.
The right of the father over his child is an imperfect right, for
he is the generator, not the creator of his child. Generation is
in the order of second causes, and is simply the development or
explication of the race. The early Roman law, founded on the
confusion of generation with creation, gave the father absolute
authority over the child--the right of life and death, as over
his servants or slaves; but this was restricted under the Empire,
and in all Christian nations the authority of the father is
treated, like all power, as a trust. The child, like the father
himself, belongs to the state, and to the state the father is
answerable for the use he makes of his authority. The law fixes
the age of majority, when the child is completely emancipated;
and even during his nonage, takes him from the father and places
him under guardians, in case the father is incompetent to fulfil
or grossly abuses his trust.
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