THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER. 309 



sees, and seizes, the invisible. In a second child, 

 reared by parents one degree more loving than the 

 last, this ultimate particle of love will grow a little 

 more, and each succeeding Family in this royal line 

 will be richer in the elements which make for progress 

 than the last. 



When we reach the human Family, we find that 

 this simple combination was already strong enough to 

 become the nucleus of the social and national life of 

 the world. For the moment the new forces of Sym- 

 pathy, Brotherhood, Self-denial, or Love, began to 

 work among the isolated units which made up primi- 

 tive Man, the whole composition and character of the 

 aggregate began to change. Sooner or later in the 

 recurring necessities of savage existence there came 

 an opportunity for the members of the first combina- 

 tion, the little group of Father, Mother, and Sons, 

 to act together. However unworthily this primitive 

 group merited the name of Family, there was here 

 what at that time was of final importance — the ele- 

 ments of physical strength. He who formerly stood 

 alone in the Struggle for Life now found himself 

 backed on occasion by an inner circle. Those who 

 outside this circle ventured to oppose or offend an 

 individual within it had the Family to reckon with. 

 Ends were gained by the new alliance which were un- 

 attainable single-handed by any individual member of 

 the tribe, and whether enlisted to evade disaster or 

 secure a prey, to resist an injustice or avenge a wrong, 

 the odds henceforth and always were in favor of the 

 combination. When it is remembered how, owing to 

 the comparative equality of the competitors in the 

 conflict of savage existence, even an infinitesimal 



