230
THE SAXOXS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
a most important social element, the responsibility
of man to man in the bond of kindred, the feelings
and engagements of family affection, family honour
and family ambition. The problem was finally
solved by a partial union of the two methods : in
all probability, the law of compromise which reigns
throughout all history, gradually brought about a
fusion of two separate principles, widely differing
in point of antiquity, and thus superinduced the
artificial upon the natural bond, without entirely
destroying the influence of the latter.
For I think it unquestionable that the artificial
bond was really later in point of time : since, in
the first place, indefinite and vague arrangements
usually precede the definite and settled ; and next,
because Tacitus takes no notice whatever of any
but the family bond, which he represents as strin-
gent in the highest degree. We have already seen
that Caesar declares the divisions of the land to
have taken place according to families or rela-
tionships, Cognationes 1, from which we may infer
at first a considerable amount of territorial unity.
From his far more observant successor we learn
that the military organization was based upon the
same principle ; that the composition of the troop
or regiment depended upon no accidental arrange-
ment, but was founded upon families or relation-
ships 2 ; and that every man was bound to take up
l See abo∖ e, p. 39, note 1.
2 “ Quodque praeeipuuɪn fortitudɪnis incitamentum est, non casus
nee fortuita Conglobatio turmaɪn aut cuneum facit, sed familiae et pro-
pinquitates.” Germ. vii.
CH. IX.]
THE TITHH∖τG AND HUNDRED.
231
the enmities as well as the friendships of his father
or kinsman1. But leaving these earlier evidences,
it still seems that the Msegburh or Family-bond is
an institution whose full comprehension is neces-
sary to a clear conception of the Anglosaxon public
and private life.
The idea of the family is at once the earliest and
strongest of human ties ; in its development it is
also the most ennobling to the individual and salu-
tary to the state; on it depend the honour and
dignity of woman, the unselfish education of man,
the training of children to obedience and love, of
parents to protection and justice, of all to love of
countryand enlightened subordination to the state.
Where it does not exist, man becomes an instru-
ment in the hands of others, or the blind tool of
systems. In its highest form it is the representa-
tive of that great mystery by which all Christians
are one brotherhood, united under one Father and
King. Throughout the latter day of ethnic civili-
zation, when the idea of state had almost ceased
to have power, and the idea of family did not exist,
there was a complete destruction both of public
and private morality ; and the world, grown to be
a sink of filth and vice, was tottering to the fall
which Providence in mercy had decreed for its
purification. The irruption of the German tribes
breathed into the dead bones of heathen cultivation
the breath of a new life ; and the individual dignity
of man as a member of a family,—the deep-seated
1 "Suscipeietaminimicitias seu patris seu propiuqui quam amiei-
tɪas necesse est.” Germ. xxi.