492 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



XII. rolyandria. 



This custom, a consequence of polygamy, requires no further notice. 



XIII. The Rise of Property and the Settlement of Lineal Succession to Estates. 

 It is impossible to over-estimate the influence of property upon the civilization 



of mankind. It was the germ, and is still the evidence, of his progress from 

 barbarism, and the ground of his claim to civilization. The master passion of the 

 civilized mind is for its acquisition and enjoyment. In fact governments, institu- 

 tions, and laws resolve themselves into so many agencies designed for the creation 

 and protection of property. Out of its possession sprang immediately the desire 

 to transmit it to children, the consummation of Avhich was the turning point between 

 the institutions of barbarism and those of civilization. When this desire, which 

 arose with the development of property, was realized by the intrpduction of lineal 

 succession to estates, it revolutionized the social ideas inherited from the previous 

 condition of barbarism. Marriage between single pairs, became necessary to 

 certainty of parentage ; and thus, in the course of time, became the rule rather 

 than the exception. The interests of property required individual ownership to 

 stimulate personal exertion, and the protection of the state became necessary to 

 render it stable. With the rise of property, considered as an institution, with the 

 settlement of its rights, and, above all, with the established certainty of its trans- 

 mission to lineal descendants, came the first possibility among mankind of the true 

 family in its modern acceptation. All previous family states were but a feeble ap- 

 proximation. The subject involved in this proposition is one of vast range and 

 compass. A passing glance is aU that can be given to it for the purpose of indi- 

 cating its position in the series of customs and institutions, by means of which 

 mankind have traversed the several epochs of barbarism, until they finally, in some 

 families, crossed the threshold which ushered them into the commencement of their 

 civilized career. It is impossible to separate property, considered in the concrete, 

 from civilization, or for civilization to exist without its presence, protection, and 

 regulated inheritance. Of property in this sense, all barbarous nations are neces- 

 sarily ignorant.^ 



XIV. The Civilized Family. 



As now constituted, the family is founded upon marriage between one man and 

 one woman. A certain parentage was substituted for a doubtful one ; and tlie 

 family became organized and individualized by property riglits and privileges. The 

 establishment of lineal succession to property as an incident of descent overthrew, 

 among civilized nations, every vestige of pre-existing customs and institutions in- 

 consistent with this form of marriage. The persistency with which the classifica- 

 tory system has folloAved down the families of mankind to the dawn of civilization 

 furnishes evidence conclusive that property alone was capable of furnisliing an 

 adequate motive for the overthrow of this system and the substitution of the des- 

 criptive. There are strong reasons for believing that the remote ancestors of the 



' Under the tribal organization property usually deseendeil in the tribe, and was distributed 

 amongst the tribal kinsmen, resulting substantially in the disinheritance of the children. Lands 

 were usually held in common. 



