CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



IN all the races of mankind, and even in the higher 

 species of the animal kingdom, the family, in one or 

 other of its many forms, is the unit of the communal 

 life and forms the basis of the social structure. In 

 all times and in all civilizations, tradition, custom and 

 law have worked together to strengthen and consolidate 

 the ties of kinship, recognizing therein, consciously or 

 unconsciously, an essential factor in any stable and 

 successful society. 



The natural ties of affection and dependence which 

 bind husband to wife, parent to child, kinsman to 

 kinsman ties without which the human race could 

 never have succeeded in establishing itself in a position 

 of predominance on the earth are far more deeply 

 engrained in our species than others which depend merely 

 on habits of association or relations of mutual benefit 

 or convenience. Even under the artificial conditions 

 of much of our modern civilization, under social 

 and economic pressure tending to break up and dis- 

 integrate the natural and fundamental relations of life, 

 it remains true, times without number, that blood is 

 thicker than water. 



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