THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER 383 



at least was inaugurated, Family Life, the first and 

 the last nursery of the higher sympathies, and the 

 home of all that was afterwards holy in the world. 

 One could not find a simpler instance of the grow- 

 ing sovereignty of Mind over the powers of Nature. 

 So remote a cause as the inclination of the earth's 

 axis, and the consequent changes of the seasons, 

 determines the time of Marriage for almost the 

 whole animal creation, while Man, and a few other 

 forms of life whose environment is exceptional, are 

 able to refuse all such dictations. It was when 

 Man's mind became capable of making its own 

 provisions against the weather and the crops that 

 the possibility of Fatherhood, Motherhood, and the 

 Family were realized. 



The supporters of the hypothesis of promiscuity 

 have tried to show, what would almost follow from 

 their theory, that the children in primitive times 

 belonged rather to the tribe. But it is not likely 

 that this was the case. The hypothesis of pro- 

 miscuity itself, notwithstanding its support from 

 McLennan, Morgan, Lubbock, Bastian, Post, and 

 other authorities, has probably received its death- 

 blow ; and the ancientness of the family as well as 

 of the institution of Marriage are both vindicated 

 by later facts. " Everywhere," writes Westermarck, 

 **we find the tribes or gl?Lti§ ggmposed of several 



