THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER, B03 



a likely if not an inevitable result. It is at least 

 certain that during those later stages of social Evo- 

 lution in which Monogamy has prevailed, the change 

 has been in the best physical interests alike of the 

 parents, the offspring, and of society. 



This barrier removed, Evolution had still much to 

 do to the other — the brevity of the time during which 

 husband and wife remained together. What short 

 work Nature had already made of this obstacle — by 

 abolishing the pairing season — we have just seen. 

 But that requires supplementing. It is not enough to 

 give time for mutual knowledge and affection after 

 marriage. Nature must deepen the result by extend- 

 ing it to the time before marriage. In primitive times 

 there was no such thing as courtship. Men secured 

 their wives in three ways, and in uncivilized nations 

 so find* them still. Among barbarous nations mar- 

 riage is not a case of love, but of capture ; among the 

 semi-barbarous it is a case of barter ; and among the 

 imperfectly civilized — among whom we must often in- 

 clude ourselves — a matter of convention. The second 

 of these, the purchase system — a slightly evolved form 

 of marriage b}^ capture — is probably one through 

 which all human Marriage has passed ; and relics of it 

 still exist in the clos and other symbols among nations 

 with whom the custom of buying a bride has long 

 since passed away. By degrading the object of barter 

 to the level of a chattel, this system is a barrier to 

 high affection. But in most cases this is heightened 

 by the impossibility of that i)reliminary courtship 

 which leads to mutual knowledge and intelligent love. 

 The bride and bridegroom, in the extremer cases, meet 

 as total strangers ; and though affection may bud in 



