210 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



Moli^re. In the last century Eousseau and other 

 writers lifted up their voices against the so-called 

 degradation of paternity, but without effect, the 

 evolution of sentiment being determined by subtle 

 causes which a literary critic can hardly hope to 

 combat. There is no need to study the stage at the 

 present time with regard to the state of the family 

 instincts ; but in order to follow out consistently our 

 plan of observation, we may remark that the student 

 of sociology who cares to consult the contemporary 

 drama will find the father occupying there a very 

 uncertain position, being only saved from ridicule, as 

 a rule, by his affection for his children — an affection 

 wholly divorced from a sense of his own authority 

 or personal dignity. In a word, the paternal character 

 among modern Englishmen may be said to have lost 

 all its majesty, and to have become trivial, or at least 

 politically unimportant. The maternal relationship 

 has been of necessity more stable than the paternal 

 from the earliest times, but even that appears to be 

 losing ground, sons and daughters of the Anglo- 

 Saxon race being careful nowadays to emancipate 

 themselves, and what is more important, being 

 allowed to do so, from almost all parental restraint. 

 In a still greater degree than it has yet done, 



