Note 411 — Chapter II · BIRTH-FEAST—NAMING THE CHILD.—NURSERY—NURSERY TALES—SPARTAN FESTIVAL.
Reading edition
Plat. Rep. v. t. vi. p. 236.—The desire of the philosopher was, that the people, or the state, should be regarded as the father of the child. Among our ancestors illegitimate children were denominated “sons of the people,” which was then thought equivalent to being the sons of nobody. Hence the following distich:—
Cui pater est populus, pater est sibi nullus et omnis,
Cui pater est populus, non habet ipse patrem.
Fortescue, Laud. Legg.
Angl. c. 40.