The history of civilization is the history of the slow and painful
enfranchisement of the human race. In the olden times the family was a
monarchy, the father being the monarch. The mother and children were the
veriest slaves. The will of the father was the supreme law. He had the
power of life and death. It took thousands of years to civilize this
father, thousands of years to make the condition of the wife and mother
and children even tolerable. A few families constituted a tribe; the
tribe had a chief; the chief was a tyrant; a few tribes formed a nation;
the nation was governed by a king, who was also a tyrant. A strong
nation robbed, plundered and took captive the weaker ones.