Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/438

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HAVING thus commented on the rights and duties of perons, as tanding in the public relations of magitrates and people, the method I have marked out now leads me to conider their rights and duties in private oeconomical relations.

three great relations in private life are, 1. That of mater and ervant; which is founded in convenience, whereby a man is directed to call in the aitance of others, where his own kill and labour will not be ufficient to anwer the cares incumbent upon him. 2. That of huband and wife; which is founded in nature, but modified by civil ociety: the one directing man to continue and multiply his pecies, the other precribing the manner in which that natural impule mut be confined and regulated. 3. That of parent and child, which is conequential to that of marriage, being it's principal end and deign: and it is by virtue of this relation that infants are protected, maintained, and educated. But, ince the parents, on whom this care is primarily incumbent, may be natched away by death or otherwie, before they have completed their duty, the law has therefore provided a fourth relation; 4. That of guardian and ward, which is a kind of artificial parentage, in order to upply the deficiency, whenever it happens, of the natural. Of all thee relations in their order. Rh