The natural obligation of the father to provide for
his children has established marriage, which makes known the person who
ought to fulfil this obligation. The people
[2]
mentioned by Pomponius
Mela
[3]
had no other way of discovering him but by resemblance.
Among civilised nations, the father is that person on whom the laws,
by the ceremony of marriage, have fixed this duty, because they find in
him the man they want.
[4]
Among brutes this is an obligation which the mother can generally
perform; but it is much more extensive among men. Their children indeed
have reason; but this comes only by slow degrees. It is not sufficient
to nourish them; we must also direct them: they can already live; but
they cannot govern themselves.
Illicit conjunctions contribute but little to the propagation of the
species. The father, who is under a natural obligation to nourish and
educate his children, is not then fixed; and the mother, with whom the
obligation remains, finds a thousand obstacles from shame, remorse, the
constraint of her sex, and the rigour of laws; and besides, she
generally wants the means.
Women who have submitted to public prostitution cannot have the
convenience of educating their children: the trouble of education is
incompatible with their station; and they are so corrupt that they can
have no protection from the law.
It follows from all this that public continence is naturally
connected with the propagation of the species.
