ABSTRACT
The mediæval family, like other mediæval institutions, was dominated by comparatively settled traditions which reflected the needs of the general system of society. The child, like the woman, helps to bear the often grievous burden of disorganization; bears it, among the well-to-do classes, in an ill-regulated life, in lack of reverence and love, in nervousness and petulance; as well as in premature and stunting labor among the poor. Among the phases of domestic "individualism" or relapse to impulse are a declining birth-rate among the comfortable classes, some lack of discipline and respect in children, a growing independence of women accompanied by alleged neglect of the family, and an increase of divorce. The modern family at its best, with its intimate sympathy and its discipline of love, is of a higher type than the family of an older regime. No social organization can be expected to subsist without some regular system of government.
