THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER. 313 



morals, are engrained in the child's mind through it ? 

 The acknowledged position of the Father in most early 

 tribes is head of the Family. To the children, and 

 generally even to the Mother, he represents Author- 

 ity. He is the children's chief. Bachoven has famil- 

 iarized us with the idea of a Matriarchate, or Maternal 

 Family ; but although exceptional tribes have given 

 supremacy to the Mother, the rule is for the Father to 

 be supreme. As head of the Family, therefore, it was 

 his business to make the Family laws. No doubt the 

 Mother also made laws ; but the Father, as the more 

 terrible person, exacted obedience with greater sever- 

 ity, and his laws acquired more force. To do what 

 was pleasing in his eyes was a necessity with the 

 children, and his favor or his frown became standards 

 of what was " good " and what was " bad." Low as 

 this standard was — the fear or favor of a savage 

 Father — it was a beginning of right mores, good con- 

 duct, proper manners. Plant in the mind, or evoke 

 from it, the idea of acting in a given way with refer- 

 ence to some half-dozen daily trifles when done in the 

 presence of one authoritative individual, and Evolu- 

 tion has already found something to work on. The 

 children have got six, if not ten commandments. Ex- 

 tend the half-dozen things done rightly to a whole 

 dozen, and then to a score, and then to a hundred; 

 and let it become habitual to do these things rightly. 

 When the right doing of these things commends the 

 doer to one person, he will next be apt to commend 

 himself by similar conduct to other persons, if their 

 standard happens to be the same. Whether good be- 

 havior purchases favor or simply succeeds in evading 

 penalties is at first immaterial. All that is required, 



