ABSTRACT
Filial duty is not so deeply based as a good many others. 1 It has not the primitive necessity of parental duty, on which rests the very life of any race, nor the high glory of social duty, upon which follows all our further progress. It is a sort of handmade duty, developed to meet occasion. When the life of the tribe demanded physical fitness of every individual, the old savage met neglect and death as philosophically as an old bear or wolf. He knew that if he was unable to keep himself alive he must die, that was all. But when our growing humanness brought out new mental powers, and the accumulated wisdom of the old was of service to the young; then grew the adage: “Old men for counsel, young men for war,” and it became advisable to keep the old alive.
