23O EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



complete ignorance of the arts it is quite possible that there 

 may have been a higher knowledge of God and a closer com- 

 munion with Him; secondly, because many cases of existing 

 barbarism [we would now say savagery] can be distinctly 

 traced to adverse external circumstances, and because it is at 

 least possible that all real barbarism has had its origin in 

 like conditions; thirdly because the known character of man 

 and the indisputable facts of history prove that he has within 

 him at all times the elements of corruption that even in his 

 most civilized condition, he is capable of degradation, that 

 his knowledge may decay and that his religion may be lost.' 



This explains the superstition that crept in over 

 all the earth. Impurity is directly connected with 

 a darkening of the intellect, and impiety together 

 with a corrupt imagination will account for the 

 cruel and debasing superstitions. Yet, though 

 idolatrous in many instances, early man never lost 

 his sense of religious duty and his belief in another 

 world. Historically religion is purer the farther 

 back we go, and the nearer it is to the original 

 source. 



Lewis H. Morgan's theory of an original herd 

 family, 3 from which the present form of marriage 

 is said by him to have developed a theory that 

 was eagerly taken up by Socialists and made an 

 essential part of their materialistic philosophy 

 has now been rejected by anthropologists. Long 

 ago Edward Westermarck had written: "It is not 

 of course impossible that, among some peoples 

 intercourse between the sexes may have been al- 



1 "Primeval Man," 199, zoo. 

 "Ancient Society." J 



