If this made the father free, it shall
make the son free too. Till then we see the law allows the
son to have no will, but he is to be guided by the will of his
father or guardian, who is to understand for him. And if the
father die, and fail to substitute a deputy in his trust; if he
hath not provided a tutor, to govern his son, during his
minority, during his want of understanding, the law takes care to
do it; some other must govern him, and be a will to him, till he
hath attained to a state of freedom, and his understanding be
fit to take the government of his will. But after that, the
father and son are equally free as much as tutor and pupil
after nonage; equally subjects of the same law together, without
any dominion left in the father over the life, liberty, or estate
of his son, whether they be only in the state and under the law
of nature, or under the positive laws of an established
government.
Sec. 60. But if, through defects that may happen out of the
ordinary course of nature, any one comes not to such a degree of
reason, wherein he might be supposed capable of knowing the law,
and so living within the rules of it, he is never capable of
being a free man, he is never let loose to the disposure of his
own will (because he knows no bounds to it, has not
understanding, its proper guide) but is continued under the
tuition and government of others, all the time his own
understanding is uncapable of that charge.
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