The children of the house, who, along with the parents, constitute a
family, attain majority, and become masters of themselves (majorennes,
sui juris), even without a contract of release from their previous
state of dependence, by their actually attaining to the capability
of self-maintenance. This attainment arises, on the one hand, as a
state of natural majority, with the advance of years in the general
course of nature; and, on the other hand, it takes form, as a state in
accordance with their own natural condition. They thus acquire the
right of being their own masters, without the interposition of any
special juridical act, and therefore merely by law (lege); and they
owe their parents nothing by way of legal debt for their education,
just as the parents, on their side, are now released from their
obligations to the children in the same way. Parents and children thus
gain or regain their natural freedom; and the domestic society,
which was necessary according to the law of right, is thus naturally
dissolved.
Both parties, however, may resolve to continue the household, but
under another mode of obligation. It may assume the form of a relation
between the bead of the house, as its master, and the other members as
domestic servants, male or female; and the connection between them
in this new regulated domestic economy (societas herilis) may be
determined by contract.
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