MORAL EVOLUTION 315 



And these conditions are present in perfection (if we pass 

 over altogether exceptional cases) only when the teacher and 

 learner are parent and child. This fact is an utter condemna- 

 tion of the socialistic system that proposes that the state should Socialism 

 undertake the entire education of children. No salaried 

 official, however zealous, is likely to succeed in awakening the 

 love of noble things. I do not wish to maintain that home 

 education can, except in very rare cases, meet the demands of 

 modern life. The point on which I insist admits of no dispute : 

 the love of all that is good and honourable, the hatred of what 

 is base and loathesome, should be instilled, as far as possible, 

 during childhood and at home. 



Hardly less ruinous than socialism is polygamy. It is the ruin Polygamy 

 of family life, and makes the higher civilisation impossible. 

 Among some species of wild animals, polygamy, as I have 

 shown, has hastened evolution, and no evil consequences have 

 attended it. Yet where the offspring require much care, pairing 

 is the rule, and the male works hard to help his mate in the work 

 of foraging and nursing. Among man, as soon as morality be- 

 came the dominant factor, polygamy was out of the question. 



As in wild nature, it grew up where the feeding of the offspring 

 was an easy matter. It is common in sunny southern lands where 

 food is easy to get, and clothing is only a matter of decency, so 

 that the multiplication of wives and children involves no great 

 difficulty for the well-to-do. It means but a small increase of 

 expenditure. In northern lands polygamy has been checked by 

 the necessity of hard work to support even one wife and family. 

 And with family life in the north have grown up certain virtues, 

 which seem to be not highly developed in the south. The north, 

 as we affectionately think of it, is 



" Dark and true and tender," 



while the south is 



" Bright and fierce and fickle." 



We can see now the connection between moral evolution and inter- 

 moral progress. Great thinkers make an atmosphere of higher ^rogrTs 



thought. In this atmosphere the individuals who compose the and evolu- 

 tion 



