The Evolution of Morality. 211 



Lennan, &quot; which, rendering women scarce, led at 

 once to polyandry within the tribe and the capt 

 ure of women from without&quot; (&quot;Ancient His 

 tory,&quot; p. 111). In the struggle for life the 

 instinct of self-preservation triumphed over the 

 Jove of offspring ; and while male children were 

 reared to grow up as braves and hunters, female 

 children, in youth as in maturity a mere burden 

 to the community, were destroyed. And this 

 disturbance of the balance of the sexes involved 

 wife-stealing and polyandry. 



Another consequence, affecting ideas of kin 

 ship, must be noticed. In the earliest times, 

 according to McLennan, the unions of the sexes 

 were &quot; loose, transitory, and in some degree pro 

 miscuous &quot; (p. 131). There may then have been 

 no perception of relationship, for relationship is 

 rooted in a physical fact the fact of consanguin 

 ity ; and this, like other objects of observation 

 and reflection, was probably long overlooked. 

 But when it was first perceived, the idea of blood- 

 relationship was embodied in a system of kinship 

 through females only as was natural when pa 

 ternity was absolutely uncertain. Now, however, 

 when the original polyandrous and polygynous 

 promiscuity was so far qualified, in consequence 

 of the killing of female children, as that several 



