37 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bad example of narrow-minded heathen 

 thousands of years ago, who treated 

 the Christians very much as many 

 Christians now treat those who are 

 devoted to the gospel of science. 



THE FAMILY AND THE STATE. 



Wk commend to those students of 

 social questions who are interested in 

 their scientific aspects the essay " On 

 the Evolution of the Family," by Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer, which was begun in 

 the June Monthly, and is concluded in 

 our present number. The article is an 

 instructive illustration of what is prop- 

 erly meant by social science, and it also 

 shows what is gained for the subject by 

 investigating its phenomena from the 

 standpoint of evolution. It is obvious 

 that we can know little of the nature 

 of the family until we have a right idea 

 of its origin ; and it is equally evident 

 that it cannot be intelligently and wise- 

 ly dealt with, either by social or politi- 

 cal arrangements, on a false theory of 

 its derivation and consequent erroneous 

 views of its constitution. It is a cur- 

 rent belief that the family is as old as 

 humanity, and is an indestructible ele- 

 ment of human society, and much the 

 same thing everywhere. Even such in- 

 quirers into the philosophy of political 

 history as Mr. Maine commence their 

 researches by assuming the family or 

 patriarchal group as a starting point. 

 But on the theory of evolution this form 

 of the domestic relations must be ac- 

 counted for. The patriarchal condition 

 was an outgrowth of earlier conditions, 

 the complex resultant of a preexisting 

 state which there is reason to believe 

 was far more prolonged than the period 

 that has elapsed since the family was 

 instituted. Be that as it may, the point 

 of view now gained is that of the family 

 as a growth, a product of the slow inter- 

 action of various natural agencies, and 

 an institution therefore that is liable to 

 impairment, disintegration, and decay. 



This conception of the family gives 

 an interest to the question of its relation 

 to the state that no other hypothesis 

 enforces. The family is older than the 

 state, and grew up without it by nat- 

 ural laws and through long domestic 

 experience and social discipline. The 

 state is a subsequent development, a 

 new direction of the power of society 

 which is liable to be so exercised as to 

 disturb and modify in serious ways the 

 domestic relations. A child cannot 

 build a house, but it can burn it down ; 

 the state did not make the family, but 

 it can mar and destroy it. If, as Mr. 

 Spencer alleges, "the salvation of every 

 society depends on the maintenance of 

 an absolute opposition between the re- 

 gime of the family and the regime of the 

 state," governmental tendencies become 

 a matter of the gravest social concern. 

 And tliese considerations acquire addi- 

 tional force in a country like this, where 

 the whole people are given over to poli- 

 tics, and where there is a universal pas- 

 sion for experimenting with society un- 

 der a superstitious delusion in regard to 

 the omnipotence of legislation. If the 

 principle laid down by Spencer be a 

 true one, then are the functions of gov- 

 ernment sharply limited, and, by tran- 

 scending them, the state to that extent 

 usurps domestic functions, and becomes 

 destructive of the family. The family 

 grew up and became consolidated, as we 

 may say, under pressure of necessities 

 and responsibilities that could not be 

 escaped, as there was no state upon 

 which parents could roll off their bur- 

 dens. But the state has come, and be- 

 sides its essential duty of protecting the 

 common rights, it is becoming more and 

 more called upon to take care of tlie 

 people, to improve the condition of the 

 people, to take charge of their children, 

 in short to assume the " parental " func- 

 tion. We have already gone so far in 

 our state meddling with the work of ed- 

 ucation and relieving parents from the 

 responsible care of their children, that 

 the demand is now urgently made by 



