Familism

The doctrines held by the Familists. Fam'ilist, n. [From family. ] ( Eccl. Hist.) One of the sect called Family of love. - See AGAPE MON I ANS. The P. is the corner-stone of the social edifice, and is well said to be God's best instrument on earth for the furtherance of the great moral and religious interests of man. Hence, it has been taken as a model for forming other a ociations, political, civil, or religious. Among the early Hebrews, and in Eastern countries, the patriarchal form of government is only an extension of the family relationship. The Greeks regarded the family as a type of the state; and among the Romans the natural power of a father was taken as the basis of the whole social and political organization of the people. The family life is based upon the wants and nece ities of our nature, and is e entially fitted to develop and foster those habits and affections on which the happine and welfare of mankind depend. It can. however, exist in a state of purity only where monogamy prevails. In the family relationship we find evidence that the pretended state of nature, which has been represented as the primitive condition of man, is totally opposed to the benevolent designs of the Author of nature. ( Bot .) A synonym for ORDER, q. v. ( Zool .) The group above the genus. An order of animals should be divided into families according to the form of species, but, in fact, the greatest confusion reigns in the cla ification of the animal kingdom. Family Compact. ( Hist . ) The treaty signed at the Escurial between Philip V. of Spain and Louis XV. of France, Nov. 7, 1733, is called by Spanish historians the First Family Compact; and the secret treaty of perpetual alliance between France and Spain, signed at Fontainebleau, Oct. 25, 1743, is termed by them the Second Family Compact. The celebrated treaty between the Bourbons of France and Spain (Louis XV. and Charles III.), known as the Family Compact, was concluded at Paris, Aug. 15, 1761. It was a defensive and offensive alliance between France and Spain. Ferdinand IV., king of Naples, acceded to the alliance. Famine, ( fam'in ,) n. [Fr., from faim , hunger; Lat. fames, probably corrupted from fagmes , akin to Gr. phāgein; Sansk. bhaksh , to eat.] Starvation; scarcity of food; dearth; a general want of provisions sufficient for the inhabitants of a country or beleaguered place; want; destitution; as, to be reduced by famine . to famish a garrison into a surrender. -v. n. To die of hunger; to starve. - To suffer extreme want of food; to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish by need of food or drink. "You are all resolved rather to die than to famish." - Shaks. To be distre ed for want of nece aries; to come near to perish by destitution.