The mode in
which this social status is acquired by individuals, and the functions
which prevail within it, proceed neither by arbitrary individual
action (facto), nor by mere contract (pacto), but by law (lege). And
this law as being not only a right, but also as constituting
possession in reference to a person, is a right rising above all
mere real and personal right. It must, in fact, form the right of
humanity in our own person; and, as such, it has as its consequence
a natural permissive law, by the favour of which such acquisition
becomes possible to us.
23. What is acquired in the household.
The acquisition that is founded upon this law is, as regards its
objects, threefold. The man acquires a wife; the husband and wife
acquire children, constituting a family; and the family acquire
domestics. All these objects, while acquirable, are inalienable; and
the right of possession in these objects is the most strictly personal
of all rights.
The Rights of the Family as a Domestic Society
Title I. Conjugal Right. (Husband and Wife)
24. The Natural Basis of Marriage.
The domestic relations are founded on marriage, and marriage is
founded upon the natural reciprocity or intercommunity (commercium) of
the sexes.* This natural union of the sexes proceeds according to
the mere animal nature (vaga libido, venus vulgivaga, fornicatio),
or according to the law.
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