136 SEX 



to its biological and social justification. In 

 early days, the man's feeling of possession 

 of the wife he had captured or bought, must 

 have tended to secure in a somewhat coercive 

 way her faithfulness; but the growth of 

 conjugal and family sympathy laid on him 

 also similar obligations. In a variety of 

 ways, partly by deliberate ethical purpose, 

 partly by the working of natural selection, 

 there has been a vindication of permanent 

 monogamic marriage. It makes for the reali- 

 sation of mutual affection which is an end 

 in itself, but, above all, it makes for the 

 welfare of the family. 



As Mr. Oliphant puts it in his admirable 

 essay on The Relations of the Sexes : "It 

 matters little that the institution of marriage 

 was originally due, not to any prevision of its 

 social value, but to the need for protecting 

 the rights of prosperity, the wife in primitive 

 limes being a chattel who must be reserved 

 for her lord. Whatever causes may have 

 underlain the custom of making the woman 

 the centre of a home, the happy effects on 

 the nurture of children must soon have 

 become evident, and the consciousness of 

 this advantage must have been present in 

 every further step taken to preserve the 

 sanctity of the family. Natural selection 

 has secured the vogue of the monogamic 

 union wherever the conditions of life have 

 favoured an ample social development. Ex- 

 perience has proved that only where the self- 

 contained family has become the unit is the 

 progress of a community fully assured. 

 Whatever form of marriage favours most the 



