THE BEGINNINGS OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION 143 



classes contributed, but also the abject poverty of 

 the dependent classes ; and under the magnificence of 

 the one class and the grinding poverty of the other 

 the family nearly disappeared. But a few centuries 

 later the family was reorganized with redoubled in- 

 tensity. In the feudalism of the Middle Ages the 

 family principle was elevated to a plane never before 

 and never since attained. The famih^ became, under 

 feudalism, the center of stability, the center of power 

 and property. The church too made marriage a 

 sacrament, thus putting its powerful religious seal 

 upon the family. But after feudalism disappeared 

 another principle began to undermine the unity of 

 the family. The priesthood degraded it and largely 

 destroyed it. The last few centuries especially have 

 seen the growth of another influence against the 

 family, which we call individualism. Under its influ- 

 ence the individual again comes to be the center 

 toward which government and progress are directed. 

 This individualism began, or at least received its 

 greatest impetus in the Reformation that occurred 

 under Luther, for at this time the conscience and 

 intelligence of the individual was proclaimed as 

 the guiding principle in religious belief. Individ- 

 ualism has been immensely fostered in recent cen- 

 turies by the growth of Protestantism, and so fast as 

 it gains the upper hand just so fast is there a ten- 

 dency toward undermining the significance of the 

 family. In modern life the family does not mean 

 what it meant in many centuries of the world's his- 

 tory. Our modern society, with its social and club 

 life, and its great and increasing tendency toward 

 divorces, is again aiming heavy blows at the exist- 

 ence of the family. Our scientific studies have also 



