214 Is Development Uniform? 



ing them. Knowledge, indeed, proceeds from 

 the vague to the definite, but, as Lotze used 

 to say, existence is under no obligation to con 

 form itself to our method of cognizing it ; and I 

 see no warrant for the current assumption, that 

 the relations between the sexes began everywhere 

 with indefinite promiscuity, and were gradually 

 determined, in the manner of an abstract notion 

 in logic, into more regulated forms, which at last 

 culminated in monogamy. The inexhaustible 

 life and variety of historical movements must not 

 be sacrificed to the dead, monotonous mechanism 

 of the logician s art, whether it be attempted by 

 Hegel or by those who criticise him. And the 

 elimination of circumstance and accident, which 

 experience shows us are so potent in the forma 

 tion and development of contemporary institu 

 tions and habits, is all the more unjustifiable in 

 the early history of mankind, when human beings 

 were more than now the prey of contingency, and 

 yet possessed fewer ideas for extricating them 

 selves from its clutches. Our antecedent expec 

 tation, therefore, would be that the social insti 

 tutions of savages would everywhere be condi 

 tioned by their environment ; and that while in 

 one section of the vast area of savagery, where 

 women happened to be scarce, polyandry might 



