OHAPTEE XIV 



THE FAMILY INSTINCTS 



The course of our inquiry into the relations of the 

 sexes from the earliest times will have prepared the 

 reader for a refutation of the commonly accepted 

 axiom that human nature is the same in all ages and 

 all over the world. No fallacy could be greater or, 

 indeed, more self-evident than this ; and the modern 

 poet, dramatist, or novelist who acted upon it, — who 

 neglected the spirit of his own age in order to follow 

 classical models, — would find himself hopelessly at 

 variance with the sentiment of his contemporaries. In 

 the relations of members of a family towards each 

 other, more especially those of parents towards child- 

 ren, the same evolutionary process goes on that we 

 have traced in regard to matrimony. The stern 

 Eoman father who exercised over his children the 

 power of life and death has been slowly transformed 



