398 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



environing enemies, the members of the Family will, 

 as it were, discover one another. New relations 

 among them will spring up, new adjustments to 

 one another's presence and to one another's needs, 

 and hitherto unknown elements of character will 

 be gradually called to the surface. That unselfish- 

 ness, in some rude form, should now grow up is 

 a necessity of living together. A man cannot be 

 a member of a Family and remain an utter egoist. 

 His interests are perforce divided, and though the 

 Family group is a small surface for unselfishness 

 to spread to and to practise on, no greater feat 

 could as yet be attempted, and Evolution never 

 runs risks of too rapid development or over-strain. 

 With the incorporation of the Family into a Clan 

 or Tribe the area will presently be extended, 

 and the necessity of controlling self-interest more 

 thoroughly, or merging it in a wider interest, 

 become more obligatory. But to prepare the 

 altruistic sentiment for so great an abnegation, 

 the simpler discipline of the Family was required. 

 How firmly Families in time became welded together 

 in mutual interest and support, and how much 

 crude Altruism this implies, is evident from the 

 place of Family feuds and the power of great 

 Families and Houses both in ancient and modern 

 history. A striking instance is the Vendetta. To 



