THE ORIGINS OF PROTESTANTISM 



originated, also, those intellectual and moral dif- 

 ferences by which humanity was first raised 

 above the common level of apehood. 1 Had the 

 infancy of man been completed within a period 

 of three or four months, as is the case with 

 other mammals, man would never have become 

 human : there would have been no social aggre- 

 gation, and there could not have been originated 

 that long-enduring process of intellectual and 

 moral development which was rendered possible 

 only through social aggregation, and which 

 went on so far during prehistoric times as to 

 raise the human brain to nearly twice the di- 

 mensions of the brain of the highest ape. But 

 the prolonging of the period of helpless infancy 

 brought with it the genesis of the family, and 

 thus inaugurated the first enduring principle of 

 concerted action among human beings. 



By simple expansion, the family grew into 

 the clan, and by expansion and coalescence small 

 groups of clans grew into the tribe; and through- 

 out these earliest stages of social organization 

 the principle of concerted action remains the 

 same that was first inaugurated by the genesis 

 of the family. In the tribal stage the ideas of 

 right and wrong are recognized, but their appli- 

 cation is strictly determined by the necessities 

 of the tribe. Right actions are those which help, 



1 See below, the paper on the " Meaning of Infancy." 

 See also Darwinism and other Essays, iii. 

 227 



