ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 269 



after a contrary system. The general principle now is, that the bene- 

 fits which come to him shall be proportioned to his merits. Though 

 parental aid, not abruptly ending, may still sometimes soften the 

 eifects of this social law, yet the mitigation of them is but partial ; 

 and, apart from parental aid, this social law is but in a small degree 

 traversed by private generosity. Then, when middle life has been 

 reached, and parental aid has ceased, the stress of the struggle be- 

 comes o-reater, and the adjustment of payment to service more rigor- 

 ous. Cleai-ly with a society, as with a species, survival depends on 

 conformity to both of these antagonist principles. Import into the 

 family the law of the society, and let children from infancy upward 

 have life-sustaining supplies proportioned to their life-sustaining 

 labors, and the society disappears forthwith by death of all its young. 

 Import into the society the law of the family, and let the life-sustain- 

 iufj- supplies be inversely proportioned to the life-sustaining labors, 

 and the society decays from the increase of its least worthy members, 

 and disappearance of its most worthy members : it must fail to hold 

 its own in the struggle with other societies, Avhich allow play to the 

 natural law that prosperity shall vary as efficiency. 



Hence the necessity of maintaining this cardinal distinction be- 

 tween the ethics of the family and the ethics of the state hence the 

 fatal result if family disintegration goes so far that family policy and 

 state policy become confused. Unqualified generosity must remain 

 tlie principle of the family while ofispring are passing through their 

 earliest stages ; and generosity, more and more qualified by justice, 

 must remain its principle as ofispring are approaching maturity. 

 Conversely, the principle of the society must ever be, justice qualified 

 by generosity in private actions, as far as the individual natures of 

 citizens prompt; and unqualified justice in the corporate acts of the 

 society to its members. However fitly in the battle of life among 

 adults, the strict proportioning of rewards to merits may be tempered 

 by private sympathy in favor of the inferior ; nothing but evil can 

 result if this strict proportioning is so interfered with by public ar- 

 rangements that demerit profits at the expense of merit. 



And now to sum up the several conclusions, connected though 

 heterogeneous, to which our survey of the family has brought us. 



That there are connections between polygyny and tlie militant type, 

 and between monogamy and the industrial type, we found good evi- 

 dence. Partly the relation between militancy and polygyny is entailed 

 by the stealing of women in war; and partly it is entailed by the mor- 

 tality of males and resulting surplus of females where war is constant. 

 In societies advanced enough to have some industrial organization, 

 the militant classes remain polygynous, while the industrial classes 

 become generally monogamous ; and an ordinary trait of the despotic 

 ruler, evolved by habitual militancy, is the possession of niimerous 



