THE EVOLUTION OF MORAL CODES 91 



were dominant no formal rules were needed for the 

 guidance of men. Law is not needed to regulate the 

 family relations except in cases where there is a lack 

 of love on the part of members for each other. For 

 centuries public law paid no attention to family rela- 

 tions, upon the principle that the feeling of mutual 

 interest should be suJScient for their regulation. 

 Law was needed only in external relations where the 

 natural attitude was one of hostility. But as larger 

 and larger organizations appeared men were brought 

 into wider and closer contact, and as this contact 

 became more intimate the sympathies of man ex- 

 tended beyond the limits of the family. He came to 

 extend to persons outside of his family the same kind 

 of feelings of love as had previously been confined to 

 his own family, though, of course, less intense. The 

 exclusiveness of family life disappeared and mutual 

 interest began to broaden. Duties and obligations 

 were recognized as binding quite independent of law 

 and based upon a widening brotherhood. The scope 

 of actions included in the moral code thus slowly 

 broadened. 



The Broadening of Obligations When the clan took 



the place of the family as the largest unit of men, the 

 obligations originally binding only upon the family 

 extended to the clan. When the tribe succeeded the 

 clan and when the kingdom succeeded the tribe a 

 similar expansion of duties occurred. But with all 

 the broadening of obligations it is significant to 

 notice that they never extended beyond the limits of 

 the special group of which each person was a mem- 

 ber. No obligations were recognized toward the 

 enemy. To love one 's friends and hate one 's enemies 

 was the rule. The only question was as to who was 



