NA TURE 



477 



THURSDAY, AUGUST lo, 1916. 



THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY. 



The History of the Family as a Social and Educa- 

 tional Institution. By Prof. W. Goodsell. 

 Pp. xiv + 588 pp. (New York : The Macmillan 

 Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1915.) 

 Price 85. 6d. net. 



IN what sense is it right to speak of the history 

 of the family? As an institution it occupies 

 so central a position in the social structure that 

 it may well seem fundamental. Should we write 

 a history of stellar motion so long as the com- 

 ponent forces determining it are constant? Are 

 the forces which find expression in the family 

 constant? Can it be said to have a history? The 

 institutions surrounding the family vary from one 

 age to another, and from people to people. Mar- 

 riage ceremonials, customs in such matters as 

 dowries, settlements, and other marriage contracts, 

 are not uniform. The rights of parents over their 

 children, of husbands over their wives, differ in 

 a similar way. But can these differences be 

 brought into any general historical scheme, or 

 are they local variations brought about by 

 economic and ideal forces acting upon an institu- 

 tion the essential nature of which has never 

 altered ? 



Some such questions as these arise in one's 

 mind as one takes up Prof. Goodsell's book, which 

 is, however, rather descriptive in its treatment 

 than historical. True, he has adopted a chrono- 

 logical order. After a very brief discussion of 

 the primitive family he describes the matrimonial 

 institution and family life of Hebrews, Greeks, 

 1 and Romans, and the changes brought about by 

 : Christianity. Thus we proceed through the 

 i Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the modern 

 1 period, in which attention is confined to England 

 and America. In this section there is a chapter 

 •describing the influence of the industrial revolution 

 on the family, and elsewhere the influence of 

 [chivalry is discussed, but, broadly speaking, as 

 jwe pass from chapter to chapter we feel ourselves 

 I in a different atmosphere without knowing exactly 

 (what it is that has brought the change about. In 

 .consequence, the book is more like a selected 

 : series of panoramic views than a history in the 

 Istrict sense. It may be that the author's treat- 

 ment is the only possible one, but in that case 

 why has so much been omitted? Except for the 

 Hebrew, the Asiatic civilisations are entirely 

 emitted ; Egypt is not mentioned, and an 

 important institution like the " Conseil de Famille " 

 ?scap>es notice. 



Obviously, the subject so interpreted is one of 

 • ast ranee ; indeed, we have only to interpret 

 •videly enough to make it include the greater part 

 >f the history of civilisation. Prof. Goodsell him- 

 self takes a wide view and includes much of that 

 •ide of human conduct which springs directly 

 rom the sex-impulse. Modes of courtship, 



NO. 2441, VOL. 97] 



prostitution, education in matter's of sex, house- 

 hold furniture, clandestine marriages, Platonic 

 love are examples. The odd way in which they 

 occur in the various sections helps to destroy the 

 unity of the book and to confirm the "panoramic 

 feeling " previously mentioned. Accessibility of 

 material rather than a philosophic plan seems at 

 times to have led the author into side-tracks, 

 attractive and interesting enough in themselves, 

 but culs-de-sac in spite of that, from the point of 

 view of the subject as a whole. 



A short notice of this kind cannot cover the 

 ground of such a book, though even a casual 

 reader will be struck by a want of precise refer- 

 ences in certain of the chapters, particularly, 

 f>erhaps, in that dealing with the primitive 

 family. Where is the *' weight of evidence " 

 which shows that polygamy is unpopular among 

 savage women ? The author gives several reasons 

 why li'e condemn it, but there is surely room for 

 doubt whether deprivation of the father's care in 

 the rearing of children or any other of the alleged 

 reasons for this feeling could have operated — in- 

 deed. Prof. Goodsell himself suggests this, for he 

 says on the preceding page that primitive man 

 could not be aware of the physical and moral 

 advantages which monogamy brings. How much 

 attention could the politically occupied citizen of 

 Athens give to the care of his children? And 

 what of men in the modem industrial State? 

 What proportion of men in our day feel this par- 

 ticular disability? In the same chapter the 

 author has clearly confused the household and the 

 village community as it still exists in Russia. It 

 is the whole community w-hich owns the land, not 

 the related families living under one roof, and 

 communal authority, not patriarchal, which allots 

 the land to the householder. 



His account of Greek family life omits all refer- 

 ence to the Spartan system of common meals, so 

 much admired by Plato and Aristotle. It does 

 little justice to Plato's high-minded, if mistaken, 

 attack upon the family, and still less to Aristotle's 

 defence of it. Both these philosophers raised 

 moral and educational issues in this connection 

 which should have found a place in a book which 

 gives considerable space to Edward Carpenter and 

 Ellen Key amongst the moderns. 



From the particular point of view of education 

 the book is perhaps least satisfying, but the task 

 which Prof. Goodsell undertook was one of 

 extraordinary difficulty. It called for scholarship 

 of a high order, and, above all, for a philosophical 

 outlook which would help to preser\"e unity of 

 aim and balance of treatment. Although defective 

 in tTiese respects, the book is full of human in- 

 terest. The pictures of home life in the old 

 colonial days are especially so. As a collection of 

 facts connected more or less closely with the family, 

 many readers will find pleasure in its perusal, 

 and as each chapter closes with a long list of 

 references it may serve as a very useful in- 

 troduction to a subject of vast interest and 

 importance. 



J. A. Green. 



B B 



