388 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



gamy and the rise of the Family was a likely if 

 not an inevitable result. It is at least certain 

 that during those later stages of social Evolution 

 in which Monogamy has prevailed, the change has 

 been in the best physical interests alike of the 

 parents, the offspring, and of society. 



This barrier removed. Evolution had still much 

 to do to the other — the brevity of the time during 

 which husband and wife remained together. What 

 short work Nature had already made of this ob- 

 stacle — by abolishing the pairing season — we have 

 just seen. But that requires supplementing. It is 

 not enough to give time for mutual knowledge and 

 affection after marriage. Nature must deepen the 

 result by extending it to the time before marriage. 

 In primitive times there was no such thing as court- 

 ship. Men secured their wives in three ways, and 

 in uncivilized nations so find them still. Among 

 barbarous nations marriage is not a case of love, 

 but of capture ; among the semi-barbarous it is a 

 case of barter; and among the imperfectly civilized — 

 among whom we must often include ourselves — a 

 matter of convention. The second of these, the 

 purchase system — a slightly evolved form of mar- 

 riage by capture — is probably one through which 

 all human Marriage has passed ; and relics of it still 

 exist in the dos and other symbols among nations 



