THE CYCLE OF SEX 135 



To some extent there is in each individual 

 an acquisition of culture of sympathies in 

 particular through the influence of family 

 life; but there has also been a selective 

 process at work favouring the survival of the 

 more domesticated types. Thus, to take a 

 diagrammatic instance, where there is less 

 maternal sympathy there will, on the average, 

 be less personal nursing of infants. But that 

 implies, again on the average, a greater 

 mortality among these infants which tends 

 towards the elimination of this sub-mamma- 

 lian type. Some other conditions, unhappily, 

 work towards its persistence. 



Maternal love is the highest product of 

 evolution in its disinterestedness and un- 

 limitedness, and though paternal love usually 

 lags far behind, the two together are often 

 wonderful. It is beyond our scope to treat 

 of parental love, but its interaction with 

 conjugal love is important. On the one hand, 

 to put it concretely, the devoted husband is 

 most likely to be a kind father ; and, on the 

 other hand, the love which realises itself in 

 the family often returns enhanced to the 

 pair. The love of offspring and the love of 

 mates are alike ancient, but on the whole, 

 priority may be ceded to the former. Maternal 

 sympathy has been the very fountain of 

 sympathy throughout the course of evolution. 

 To the common human stock of altruistic 

 sympathies, the females have contributed 

 primarily as mothers, and the males above 

 all as lovers. 



Much has been written on the history of 

 marriage and there is general agreement as 



