CH. XXII.] GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY. 345 



becomes a clan, the members of which are united by ties con- 

 siderably stronger than those which ally them to members of 

 adjacent clans, with whom they may indeed combine to resist 

 the aggressions of yet further outlying clans, or of formidable 

 beasts, but towards whom their feelings are usually those of 

 hostile rivalry. It remains to add, that the family groups 

 thus constituted differ widely in many respects from modern 

 families, and do not afford the materials for an idyllic picture 

 of primeval life. Though always ready to combine against the 

 attack of a neighbouring clan, the members of the group are 

 by no means indisposed to fight among themselves. The 

 sociality is but nascent: infants are drowned, wives are 

 beaten to death, and there are deadly quarrels between 

 brothers. So in modern families evanescent barbarism shows 

 itself in internal quarrels, while nevertheless injury offered 

 from without is resented in common. A more conspicuous 

 difference is the absence of monogamy in the primitive clan. 

 It has been, I think, demonstrated, — and for the evidence in 

 detail I would refer to Sir John Lubbock's excellent treatise 

 on the " Origin of Civilization," and to the learned works of 

 M'Lennan and Tylor, — that in the primitive clan all the 

 women are the wives of all the men. Traces of this state of 

 things, which some of our half-educated " reformers " would 

 fain restore, are found all over the world, both in modern 

 savage communities and in traditional observances preserved 

 by communities anciently civilized. There was also, as Sir 

 Henry Maine has proved, entire community of lands and 

 goods, and the individual possessed no personal rights as 

 against tne interests of the clan. And let us note, in conclu- 

 sion, that this state of things, while chiefly brought about by 

 the process of direct equilibration above described, is just 

 that which natural selection must assist and maintain so 

 long as the incipient community is small and encompassed by 

 dangers. 

 Thus we cross the cha«m wiiich divides animality from hu- 



