has at one time or another rested on the sustaining power of the father.
The patriarch, in ancient times, protected and sustained his dependents,
and, in return, received their entire allegiance, wielding over them the
power of life and death, and thus initiating the first form of human
government. Next came the cities where the government was formed by all
the fathers together in council, and our village and city legislators
are, to this day, called "the city fathers," although the reverence in
which so august a body was once held has departed with the silent flight
of the dignity of our modern convocations. Some one has said of