Excerpt from The History of Public Poor Relief in Massachusetts: 1620-1920 Though their emergence be sometimes quick, the abiding tenets by which man governs himself do not spring full armed from the mind of any one person, king or spiritual leader though he be: they are the sum total of the feelings and desires of generations in the mass. They are custom become law. Hence it is that the origin of those concepts in law Which together make up the framework of all systems of government over self-governing peoples is to be found, not in the debates upon the floor of legislative assemblies, Where imitators of other men's thoughts are wont to repeat ideas that have long since grown to an adult state-by no means here; but rather in the crowded little upstairs room in the village hall, where valiant townsmen, with no claim to greatness and no title before the world other than that merely of inhabitant, gather to do battle over a bound ary line, to urge or oppose a victualler's license, to applaud the candidate who stands for no more wooden awnings on the main street, or, quite as likely, to express sympathy and grant succor to the widow Jones. It is out of this forum of village life that spring the uses and customs of men. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.