PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 285 



arise conditions conducive to that internal exogamy which Mr. Mc- 

 Lennan supposes, rightly I think, to replace external exogamy. For, 

 unless we assume that, in a cluster of tribes, each will undertake to 

 rear women for adjacent tribes to steal, we must conclude that the 

 exogamous requirement will be met in a qualified manner. Wives 

 born within the tribe, but foreign by blood, will, under pressure of the 

 difficulty, be considered allowable, instead of actually stolen wives. 

 And thus, indeed, that kinship in the female line, which primitive 

 irregularity in the relations of the sexes originates, will become estab- 

 lished, even though male parenthood is known ; since this interpreta- 

 tion of kinship will make possible conformity to a law of connubium 

 that could not otherwise be obeyed. 



Nothing of much importance is to be said respecting exogamy and 

 endogamy in their general bearings on social life. 



Exogamy in its primitive form is clearly an accompaniment of the 

 lowest barbarism ; and it decreases as the hostility of societies becomes 

 less constant, and the usages of war mitigated. That the implied 

 crossing of tribal stocks, where these tribal stocks are very small, 

 may be advantageous, physiologically, is true ; and exogamy may so 

 secure a benefit which at a later stage is secured by the mingling of 

 conquering and conquered tribes ; though none who bear in mind the 

 thoughtlessness of savages will suppose such a benefit to have been 

 contemplated. But the exogamous custom, as at first established, 

 implies an extremely abject condition of women; a brutal treatment 

 of them ; an entire absence of the higher sentiments that accompany 

 the relation of the sexes. Associated with the lowest type of political 

 life, it is also associated with the lowest type of domestic life. 



Evidently endogamy, which at the outset must have characterized 

 the more peaceful groups, and which has prevailed as societies have 

 become less hostile, is a concomitant of the higher forms of the family. 



-+*+- 



PKOFESSOK HUXLEY'S LECTUKES. 1 



III. 



THE DEMONSTRATIVE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION. 



IN my last lecture, I had occasion to place before you evidence de- 

 rived from fossil remains, which, as I stated, was perfectly con- 

 sistent with the doctrine of evolution, in fact, was favorable to it, but 

 could not be regarded as the highest kind of evidence, or as that sort 

 of evidence that we call demonstrative. 



1 The last of three lectures on " The Direct Evidence of Evolution," delivered at 

 Chickering Hall, New York, September 20th. From the report of the New York Tribune, 

 carefully revised by Prof. Huxley. 



