208 Assumptions about the Family. 



nogynous and monandrous marriage obtained ; it 

 is further implied that this is the only natural 

 form of relation between man and woman, Hy 

 men excluding the very idea of casual connec 

 tion ; and it is finally implied that from this ex- 

 clusiveness in &quot; wedded love &quot; alone could spring 

 a tree of family relationship with its flower of 

 domestic virtues. Whether these assumptions are 

 facts, or uncritical dogmas having no other sup 

 port than the inertia of incurious tradition, is 

 the first question we have to consider. And 

 should it appear from the investigating torch of 

 history that the assumptions are illusory, we 

 should then have to determine in what way the 

 ories of ethics were affected by the discovery. 

 Having rejected Darwin s supposition of a meta 

 morphosis of the absolutely non-moral into the 

 moral, it would be incumbent upon us to find 

 some other interpretation of the late emergence 

 of chastity, should history show that chastity was 

 not at the first universally recognized as a virtue. 

 The first scientific study of the history of mar 

 riage was made by the late Mr. J. F. McLennan 

 in an interesting and highly original work, pub 

 lished in 1865 under the title of &quot;Primitive 

 Marriage,&quot; and republished in 1876 as &quot; Studies 

 in Ancient History.&quot; The object of the work is 



