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is invented which gives it authority and duration.The state takes a share in the cares of the lover,and prescribes the forms that are to bind him tohis mistress. Nature, while she fits the sexes foreach other, leaves it to polity or law to regulatethe mode of their connexion.
The race of men who anciently inhabited Ger many , are represented, as was formerly observed,in the condition of nations; and a legislature,composed of the prince, the nobles, and thepeople, directed their operations. This assembly,which gave a sanction to military expeditions,and adjusted alliances and treaties , managed alsothe objects of internal concern. It extended itsjurisdiction over the women as well as over theother parts of the community, and ascertained theceremonial of marriage.
When the individual was called from the houseof his father, and invested with arms; when hewas advanced from being a part of a private familyto be a member of the republic, he had the capacityof entering into contracts, and of singling out theobject of bis affections. The parties who had agreedto unite their interests, having obtained the appro-bation of their parents and relations , made aninterchange of gifts in their presence. The lovergave his mistress a pair of oxen, a bridled horse,a shield, a sword , and a javelin; and she, in herturn, presented him with some arms. It was thusthey expressed their attachment to each other, andtheir willingness to discharge mutually the dutiesof the married state. This was their strongest tie ;
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