Are We a Declining Race ? 



the Ptolomies habitually married their sisters, 

 nieces and cousins. 



" Diodorus Siculus informs us that the Egyp- 

 tians were not restricted to any number of wives, 

 but that every one married as many as he chose, 

 with the exception of the priesthood, who were 

 by law confined to one wife. The Egyptians 

 had concubines, also, most of whom appear to 

 have been foreign women." (Westermarck, 

 " History of Human Marriage," p. 432.) 



Diodorus lived at an age when the glory of 

 Egypt was departing for ever, and he wrote of 

 Egyptian habits as they appeared at the time of 

 Caesar. 



Thus Egypt rose to opulence and power under 

 exemplary matrimonial laws, and declined in an 

 age of profligacy. " As Menes in Egypt, as Fohi 

 in China. So Cecrops in Athens, is said to have 

 first brought within restricted limits, the 

 irregular intercourse of the sexes." 



Whether these kings were the founders of the 

 institution of matrimony in their own countries, 

 or not, is immaterial ; it is sufficient to know 

 that they ruled peoples who were living under 

 exemplary matrimonial laws. Cecrops, or 

 Kekrops, as his name is sometimes spelt, is said 

 to have instituted laws which forbade polygamy, 

 and the men were not allowed to marry until 

 they were thirty-five years of age. Neither were 

 they allowed to marry within certain degrees of 

 consanguinity. 



This limit of age might seem unreasonable to 

 us of the twentieth century, who allow our 

 own children to marry twenty years earlier. 

 38 



