812 THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER. 



the Family is one of exceptional interest. The at- 

 tempt has been made to show that from the inevitable 

 relations of early Family life, the sense of Duty first 

 dawned upon the world. The theme is too great, too 

 intricate, and too dangerous to open under the limita- 

 tions of the present inquiry, for these deny us the 

 appeal to Society, to Religion, and even to the Con- 

 science of the higher Man. But it is due to the 

 Father, whose Evolution we are tracing, that the 

 share he is supposed by some authorities to take in it, 

 should be at least named. 



That morality in general has something to do with 

 the relations of people to one another is evident, as 

 every one knows, from the mere derivation of the 

 word. Mores, morals, are in the first instance cus- 

 toms, the customs or ways which people have when 

 they are together. Now, the Family is the first occa- 

 sion of importance where we get people together. 

 And as there are not only a number of people in a 

 Family, but different kinds of people, there will be a 

 variety in the relations subsisting between them, in 

 the customs which stereotype the most frequently re- 

 peated actions necessitated by these relations, and in 

 the moods and attitudes of mind accompanying them. 

 Leaving out of sight differences of kind among broth- 

 ers and sisters, consider the probably more divergent 

 and certainly more dominant influences of Father and 

 Mother. What the relation of child to Mother has 

 crystallized into we have sufficiently marked — it is a 

 relation of direct dependence, and its product is Love. 

 But the Father is a wholly different influence. What 

 attitude does the Child take up in this austerer pres- 

 ence, and what ways of acting, what customs, mores t 



