Slavery thus limited may, perhaps, in certain special circum-
stances, contain no violation of strict right, and, therefore,
no injustice; yet, it ever has been an evil, usually far greater
than squalid poverty; and it has occasioned coundess
abuses of the most deplorable kind. Hence, the Church has
always labored — and with unfailing success — ^to mitigate and
finally to suppress it. To the general satisfaction, slavery has
disappeared from all Christian lands. There is no reason,
therefore, for treating the subject further.
CHAPTER III.
CIVIL SOCIETY.
221. Civil society may be defined as a union of many such
persons as are their own masters, sui juris, joined together
for the purpose of protecting their rights and securing their
temporal happiness. In the present chapter we shall con*
sider the nature and the origin of civil society, and the
exercise of civil functions.
Article 1. The Nature and the Origin of Civil

Society.
222. The nature of civil society can be best understood
from a detailed examination into its constituent notes» namely:
I. Its end or purpose, 2. The units composing it, 3. The
authority governing it, 4. The means employed to obtain
its end.
§1. The End of Civil Society.
223. I. We have seen in a preceding chapter (No. 199)
that society, or association of some kind, is natural to man,
and, consequently, that it is an institution of God. The
society first in the order of nature is the family, or domestic
society, and next in order comes civil society, or the State.
