THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER 401 



and generally even to the Mother, he represents 

 Authority. He is the children's chief. Bachoven 

 •has familiarized. us with the idea of a Matriarchate, 

 or Maternal Family ; but although exceptional- 

 tribes have given supremacy to the Mother, the 

 rule is for the Father to be supreme. As head of 

 the Family, therefore, it was his business to make 

 the Family laws. No doubt the Mother also 

 made laws ; but the Father, as the more terrible 

 person, exacted obedience with greater severity, and 

 his laws acquired more force. To do what was 

 pleasing in his eyes was a necessity with the 

 children, and his favour or his frown became stand- 

 ards of what was " good " and what was " bad." 

 Low as this standard was — the fear or favour of a 

 savage Father — it was a beginning of right moreSy 

 good conduct, proper manners. Plant in the mind, 

 or evoke from it, the idea of acting in a given 

 way with reference to some half-dozen daily trifles 

 when done in the presence of one authoritative 

 individual, and Evolution has already found some- 

 thing to work on. The children have got six, if 

 not ten commandments. Extend the half-dozen 

 things done rightly to a whole dozen, and then to 

 a score, and then to a hundred ; and let it become 

 habitual to do these things rightly. When the 



right doing of these things commends the doer to 



2 c 



