53 8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and extended on the other, which meets us on the threshold of primi- 

 tive jurisprudence. Older probably than the state, the tribe, and 

 the house, it left traces of itself on private law long after the house 

 (another name for gens) and the tribe had been forgotten, and long 

 after consanguinity had ceased to be associated with the composition 

 of states." He also says: "It will be found to have stamped itself 

 on all the great departments of jurisprudence, and may be detected 

 as the true source of many of their most important and most durable 

 characteristics." This is but another proof that the best things in 

 law and love are always up to date. 



Polyandric households prevailed to some extent where women 

 were outnumbered by men, and polyandry is practiced now in some 

 parts of Europe, India, and among certain tribes in the Pacific 

 Islands and America. Among the usually polygynous Indian 

 tribes, the Iroquois was a single monogamic exception. 



Polygynists and polyandrists can never have known love in its 

 quintessence. Love, unlike coffee, can not be diluted with safety 

 for family use. Only the pure, strong extract is the basis of a true 

 union between one man and one woman. And such a marriage is 

 the only fit foundation for family life. True, there have been wed- 

 dings — that is, ceremonies, festivities, and trousseaux — without love, 

 but if the family had depended on the mere correlation of the sexes 

 it would have died an early death as an institution. Professor 

 Drummond explains how conjugal love came into existence in this 

 way. Speaking of the loveless marriages of the early races and how 

 love came, he says : " If neither the husband nor the wife bestowed 

 this gift upon the world, who did? It was a little child. Till this 

 appeared, man's affection was non-existent, woman's was frozen. 

 But one day from its mother's very heart, from a shrine which her 

 husband never visited nor knew was there, which she herself dared 

 scarce acknowledge, a child drew forth the first fresh bud of love 

 which was not passion, a love which was not selfish, a love which was 

 an incense from its Maker, and whose fragrance from that hour went 

 forth to sanctify the world." 



However, it was never intended that parenthood should precede 

 conjugal love, but rather that it should strengthen it. Mrs. Brown- 

 ing's interpretation of conjugal love in the first human family be- 

 fore the first baby came seems reasonable and right. In the Drama 

 of Exile, Adam thanks God 



" That rather, thou hast cast me out with her 



Than left me lorn of her in paradise, 

 With angel looks and angel songs around 



To show the absence of her eyes and voice, 

 And make society full desertness." 



