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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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made over to them in their tenderest age , even in their plays , with all the cordiality of parental love . With the first son therefore born of woman the mighty instrument begins to workthat by which the whole human race has preserved , and will continue to preserve its form—namely , tradition , or the handing down of ideas .
The Mosaic record abandons us here , and leaps over an interval of fifteen or more years , to present to us the two brothers already grown up . But this space of time is important to the human history ; and if omitted in the documents , reason must supply the void .
The birth of a son , his support , nursing , and education , brought to the knowledge , perceptions , and duties of the first parents an important accession , which we must carefully trace out .
From animals , the first mother undoubtedly learnt the most indispensable maternal duty , as necessity probably taught her expedients at the birth . Anxiety for the children rendered her heedful of countless little
comforts , till now unknown ; the number of thing's of which she learnt to make use increased , and maternal love was rich and fruitful in invention . Until now both had known only one social connexion , only one species of love , since each had in the other
only one object . Now with a new object they became acquainted with a new kind of lave , a new moral relation—parental love . This new feeling was of a purer kind than the first , being entirely free from selfishness , while the former was founded on mere
gratification , and the reciprocal need of society-They entered therefore with this fresh experience on a higher step of morals—they were ennobled . But the parental love , in which both
sympathized for their child , operated no trifling change in the relationship between themselves . The cares , the joys , the tender sympathy iu which they united for the common object of their love , knit them together with a fresh and fairer bund . Each on this
occasion discovered in the other new beautiful moral features , and each of these discoveries elevated and refined their connexion . The husband loved in the wife the mother , the mother of
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his beloved son . The wife honour ^ and loved in the husband the father the supporter of their child . The bare sensual complacency in each other rose into reverence , and out of selfish love sprung the fair semblance of conjugal affection .
Soon were these moral acquisitions increased with new . The children grew up , and between them also there was gradually formed a tender tie . The child attached itself most fondly * to the child , because each creature only loves itself in its like . With soft
and imperceptible threads , fraternal love was woven . A new experience for the first parents . They saw now a picture of sociality , of friendly feeling ^ without them ; they recognized their own sensations , but in a more youthful mirror .
Until now , both had , while alone , lived only in the present and the past ; but now distant futurity began to display its charms . As they saw their children grow up beside them , and each day develope a new capacity , smiling- prospects opened in the perspective when these offspring should
become men , like to themselves—in their hearts awoke a new feeling , hope . And what a boundless plain does hope lay open to rnanl Hitherto they had enjoyed each blessing once only , in the present—henceforward every future pleasure will be felt beforehand , with countless repetition 1
And as the children really grew up , what variety burst at once on the first human society ! Every idea imparted by the parents had imaged itself differently in each separate soul , and now surprised them with the force of novelty . Now the circulation of thought
became a living * principle ; moral feeling was set in action , and by action unravelled 3 speech grew fuller , painted more accurately , and ventured already on finer feelings ; new
acquaintance was made with nature , and new modifications arose of what was previously known . Man was now almost wholly engaged in vigilant atten tion . No longer was there any danger of his sinking to an imitation of the brute !
III . Diversity of Modes of Life . The progress of civilization manifested itself even in the first generation . Adam tilled the field ; we see one of his sons adopt a new branch of
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408 Remarks on the First Human Society ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/24/
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