The whole subject must be considered in one of two ways: with reference, namely, to a man living alone with his family, or to the same man and family, in a bond of union with others, that is in the _state_. Could we conceive a permanent condition of society, such that each particular family lived apart, without connection or communion with others, we must admit the inevitable growth of a patriarchal system, of which the eldest member of the family would be the head; a system similar to that which we do find described as prevailing in the wandering family of Abraham. But such a condition could only exist at a period of time, and in a state of the earth, which admitted of frequent migration, and while the population bore a small proportion to the means of support, perhaps even in countries where water is of greater value than land. Thus the moment the family of Abraham became too numerous, and his herdsmen found it necessary to defend their wells and pastures against the herdsmen of Lot, a separation took place and the Scheiks parted, according to the provisions of a solemn compact, that there might not be strife between them[199]. But, setting aside the mysterious purposes for which the race of Abraham were made wanderers, and which impress an exceptional character upon their whole history, it is clear that even they were surrounded by a society, whose conditions were totally different from any that could have existed in Germany. They fled from the face of a depraved cultivation, prevalent in the cities, and they were sojourners only from place to place, till the fulness of time, when they were to found the normal theocracy of the world. ----- Footnote 199: Genesis xiii. 6, _seq._ ----- To a certain degree they resembled the squatters in the backwoods of America; like them, they established a law for themselves, and acted upon it:—with the nature of that law, divine or human, we have nothing to do, for the purposes of this inquiry:—in this sense, indeed, they could be kings and priests in their own house; but so are, or were, the North American _Regulators_, who, in their own families and among all over whom they could establish their power, acted as judges, and both promulgated and executed a law which was necessary to their very existence in the wilderness.