70 The Growth of the Man'lage Relation. 



riage law of a race more highly cultured than the Israelites, 

 who were polygamists down to a late period of their 

 history. The early Hebrews had, however, made such 

 advances in civilization that we cannot look to them for the 

 earliest form in wliich the marriage relation expressed 

 itself. We must go beyond tliem to the lowest of all exist- 

 ing races, from whom we sliall learn mcn'e of the manners 

 of primitive man than by searching the records of the 

 l)ast. 



Marriage is, indeed, not limited to the human race. The 

 idea of sex is universal throughout the organic world, and 

 in the animal kingdom similar phases of the marriage 

 relation are to be met with as with man himself. Thus, of 

 the man-like apes, the gorilla and the chimpanzee are 

 polygynous, while the orang and the soko are monundrous. 

 The orang associates with his female companion only i)art 

 of the year, but some kinds of monkeys, which are said to 

 be strictly monogamous, live with their mates all the year 

 round. This consorting is evidently based on the sexual 

 instinct, which is the true source of all inarriage. 



We find that the chief actions of the animal life are 

 directed towards one or other of two great ends, the pres- 

 ervation of the individual or the perpetuation of the race. 

 The former is the organic instinct, or instinct of self-pres- 

 ervation, and the latter the sexual instinct, or instinct of 

 race-perpetuation. The reference to race shows what is the 

 true object of the association between the sexes in ''mar- 

 riage," which necessarily supposes fitness fur the relation, 

 and a certain degree of permanence. In the absence of 

 permanence, the institution could not take root so as to 

 undergo the growtli which the theor}' of evolution requires. 

 Temporary marriages have not been unknown, even to 

 peo})l('S claiming a considerable degree of culture, but i\\vy 

 are not so common as some writers suppose, and they must 

 be regarded as ])urely exce])tional. 



The nuirriage relation is thus based on the sexual instinct, 

 its aim is the })erpetuation of the race tlirough the family, 

 and it requires a certain permanence in the association 

 formed between the individuals concerned. These features 

 exclude from consideration the exam])les, real or sup])osed, 

 of promiscuity, wliich are said to jirove that primitive man 

 once existed in snch a social condition, but which do not 

 possess the signiticance attached to them by Mr. Herbert 



