i62 Heredity and Child Culture 



the great educators in the character of parents. 

 For children give more than they take. They 

 are the greatest ci\ilizers and humanizers of 

 the race. Without their unconscious but bene- 

 ficient influence, we would soon relapse into a 

 possibly refined but selfish barbarism. The 

 child has done more for the regeneration of the 

 race than-all the creeds that have ever been for- 

 mulated. 



As the best physical, moral and social de- 

 velopment of child life takes place in the indi- 

 vidual home, every effort must be made to 

 strengthen and conserve family life. The child 

 forms the connective link of the family, which, 

 in turn, represents the earliest human unit of 

 association, antedating both church and state. 

 In fact, the earliest form of government found 

 expression in the patriarchal family. In social 

 evolution, the monogamous relationship exhibits 

 the highest form that family life has attained. 

 It is probable that promiscuity marked the life 

 of primitive man. Among many early tribes 

 and nations, the family in the modern sense 

 cannot be said to have functioned. Ther ideal 



