THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER. 307 



and its recklessness when thwarted, have given rise 

 to exaggerated ideas of its power. In all uncontrolled 

 forms, however, it becomes so immediate a menace to 

 social order, that if it does not die out in self-destruc 

 tion it is checked by the community and forced into 

 lawful channels. The only thing that could bear the 

 heavy burden of social order and adapt itself to every 

 change and fresh demand was the indestructibly solid 

 yet elastic, strength of love. The care and culture 

 of love therefore became thenceforth the first great 

 charge of Evolution, and every obstruction to its path 

 began to be swept away. Whatever facilities could 

 further its career were gradually adopted, and changes 

 which soon began to pass over the face of all human 

 societies seemed but parts of one great conspiracy to 

 hasten its final reign. 



For a prolonged and protective Fatherhood, once 

 introduced into the world, was immediately taken 

 charge of by Natural Selection. The children wno 

 had fathers to fight for them grew up ; those which 

 had not, were killed or starved. The lengthening of 

 the period during which Father and Mother kept to 

 gether meant double protection for the little ones ; 

 and the more they kept together for the first few 

 days or weeks, and the more the Father helped to 

 defend mother and child, the more chance for all three 

 in the end. The picture which Koppenfells draws of 

 the female Gorilla and her young ensconced in a nest 

 upon the fork of a tree, while Gorilla pere sat all 

 night at the foot with his back against the trunk 

 to protect them from the leopards, is a fair object- 

 lesson in the first or protectwe stage of the Father s 

 Evolution. When Man passed, however, as he prob- 



