The original of society, continued my father, I’m satisfied is, what _Politian_ tells us, _i.e._, merely conjugal; and nothing more than the getting together of one man and one woman; --to which, (according to _Hesiod_) the philosopher adds a servant: ----but supposing in the first beginning there were no men servants born----he lays the foundation of it, in a man, --a woman--and a bull. ----I believe ’tis an ox, quoth _Yorick_, quoting the passage (οἶκον μὲν πρώτιστα, γυναῖκα τε, βοῦν τ’ ἀροτῆρα). ----A bull must have given more trouble than his head was worth. ----But there is a better reason still, said my father (dipping his pen into his ink); for the ox being the most patient of animals, and the most useful withal in tilling the ground for their nourishment, --was the properest instrument, and emblem too, for the new joined couple, that the creation could have associated with them. --And there is a stronger reason, added my uncle _Toby_, than them all for the ox. --My father had not power to take his pen out of his ink-horn, till he had heard my uncle _Toby’s_ reason. --For when the ground was tilled, said my uncle _Toby_, and made worth inclosing, then they began to secure it by walls and ditches, which was the origin of fortification. ----True, true, dear _Toby_, cried my father, striking out the bull, and putting the ox in his place. My father gave _Trim_ a nod, to snuff the candle, and resumed his discourse. ----I enter upon this speculation, said my father carelessly, and half shutting the book, as he went on, merely to shew the foundation of the natural relation between a father and his child; the right and jurisdiction over whom he acquires these several ways-- 1st, by marriage. 2d, by adoption. 3d, by legitimation. And 4th, by procreation; all which I consider in their order.