THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER 397 



ence, even an infinitesimal advantage on one side or 

 the other determines health or starvation, survival or 

 extinction, the importance of the first feeble effort at 

 federation must be recognized. Shoulder to shoulder 

 has been the watchword all through history of 

 national development. Almost from the very first, 

 indeed, the Family and not the individual must 

 have been the unit of Tribal life ; and as Families 

 grew more and more definite, they became the 

 recognized piers of the social structure and gave a 

 first stability to the race of men. 



But great as are the physical advantages of 

 the Family, the ethical uses, even in the early 

 days of its existence, place this institution at 

 the head of all the creations of Evolution. For 

 the F'.mily is not only its greatest creation, but 

 its greatest instrument for further creation. The 

 ethical changes begin almost the moment it is 

 formed. One immediate effect, for instance, of the 

 formation of Family groups was to take off from 

 any single individual the perpetual strain of the 

 Struggle for Life. The Family as a whole must 

 sometimes fight, but the responsibility and the 

 duty are now distributed, and those who were once 

 solely preoccupied with the personal struggle will 

 have respites, during which other things will 

 occupy their minds. Attention thus called off from 



