CHAPTER VII 



THE PROBLEM OF THE HOME 



The fact of heredity is not at all a modern 

 discovery. It has been recognized by laws and 

 customs from the earliest ages ; and in most times 

 it has been honoured in that concrete manifesta- 

 tion of it, — the family. Hereditary rights, of 

 which the world has heard so much, imply in a 

 certain sense continuance of individual existence. 

 The son of a king succeeds to the throne without 

 regard to his fitness, but solely because of his 

 relation to his father. In the son the family is 

 presumed to continue its reign. 



Hence the common term, " the reigning family." 

 The right which the father won by force is passed 

 on by inheritance, which is simply the parent liv- 

 ing again in his child. If a man dies without a 

 will, the State passes the property on to his widow 

 and his children, the latter receiving about two- 

 thirds of it. The laws of the State therefore still 

 favour the old family idea of society, that the indi- 

 vidual does not altogether cease to exist at death. 



The solidarity of the race, which rests on the 



