GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY 



new question, suggested by some of the con- 

 clusions obtained on our first line of inquiry. 

 Having perceived that the intellectual progress, 

 or increase in representative capacity, which 

 distinguishes man from brute, is so intimately 

 connected with man's capacity for social combi- 

 nation, it became needful to search for the cir- 

 cumstances which begot in the progenitors of 

 mankind the capacity for a kind of social com- 

 bination more definite in the character of Its 

 relationships than that quasi-social combination, 

 not uncommon among mammals, which Is known 

 as gregarlousness. In other words, seeing that 

 such thinkers as Sir Henry Maine have shown 

 that the primordial unit of society, by the mani- 

 fold compounding of which great tribes and 

 nations have come into existence, was the abo- 

 riginal family group, with Its nascently ethical 

 relationships between the members, how shall 

 we explain the genesis of these family groups, 

 which have nothing strictly answering to them, 

 either among non-human primates or among 

 other gregarious animals ? 



The feature by which the most rudimentary 

 human family group is distinguished from any 

 collocation of kindred individuals among grega- 

 rious mammals is the permanent character of 

 the relationships between its constituent mem- 

 bers. Enduring from birth until death, these re- 

 lationships acquire a traditionary value which 



