362 Heredity. 



variable and indestructible ground whereon the ephemeral shadow 

 of the individuals is thrown, and over which it flits. 



In all primitive civilizations, the family came more or less near 

 to this type wherein heredity is everything and free-will nothing. 1 

 Among the Hindus, Greeks, Romans, and Aryan peoples in 

 general, the family was a natural community, having not only the 

 same possessions, the same interests, the same traditions, but 

 the same gods and the same rites. Religion was domestic, and 

 hence Plato defines relationship to be ' a community of domestic 

 gods.' These gods were of course worshipped by their own 

 family, in their own sanctuary, and on an altar whereon the sacred 

 fire was ever burning. No stranger could offer sacrifice to them 

 without sacrilege. 



To this necessary heredity of rites, which it was of obligation to 

 maintain, was added the heredity of property. Originally among 

 the Hindus, property was inalienable. In many Greek cities ancient 

 laws forbad the citizen to sell his plot of land. 2 In Greece and 

 in India succession was from male to male in order of primo- 

 geniture, and only at a late period in history was any share allowed 

 to the younger sons, or to the daughters. It is probable that 

 primitive Rome in like manner accepted the law of primogeniture. 



It is equally instructive to notice that testaments were intro- 

 duced at a late period, at the time when the state and the family 

 had broken away from the immobility of inheritance, in order to 

 give freer play to individual action. Thus, according to Fustel de 

 Coulanges, ancient Hindu law knew nothing of testaments. The 

 same is to be said of Athenian law prior to Solon. At Sparta 

 testaments do not appear till after the Peloponnesian war ; and at 

 Rome they do not seem to have been in use before the law of the 

 Twelve Tables. This allows to them the force of law: Uti 

 egassit (pater familias) super pecunia tutelave su<z rei, ita jus esto. 



The rule which subordinates the individual to heredity, by 

 making the conservation of property obligatory, exists in a more 

 or less perfect form in the great families of Sweden, Norway, 

 Denmark, and Scotland ; also over a large portion of Germany, 



1 On this subject see Fustel de Coulanges, Le Cite Antique, and Le Play, La 

 Reforme Sociale, ch. ii. 



2 Aristotte, Politics, ii. 4. 



