38o THE ASCENT OF MAN 



gations of Westermarck, who has lately contributed 

 to sociology the most masterly account of the 

 Evolution of Marriage we possess — it appears more 

 than probable that the earliest progenitors of Man 

 had also a pairing season, and that the young were 

 born at a particular time of the year, and never 

 at any other time. All the animals nearest to 

 Man in Nature have such a season, and there 

 are only a few known — the elephant for instance, 

 and some of the whales — which have none. Now 

 the brevity of this period in the father's case must 

 have told against his developing any real affection. 

 If he is to run away a few days after the young 

 are born he will miss all the discipline of the home, 

 and as this discipline is essential, as this is the only 

 way in which love can be acquired, or inherited love 

 developed, some method must be adopted in his 

 case to extend the period of home life during which 

 it can act. 



Now let us see how this was done. The problem 

 being to give Love time, the solution was in some 

 way to alter the circumstances which confined the 

 pairing season to a specific date — to abolish, in 

 fact, the pairing season in the case of Man, and 

 lengthen out the time in which husband and wife 

 should stay together. And as this was actually 

 the method adopted, we have first to ask what 



