Imaginary Primitive Life of Man 157 



and now form an integral part of the philosophy 

 of force. They are called romances because they 

 are based entirely upon a priori reasoning, without 

 the slightest basis of evidence to justify them. 

 The errors are characterized by a confident 

 affirmation of the conditions and events which 

 must have taken place some two hundred thousand 

 years ago, although no written record has come 

 down to us from this prehistoric period, no 

 witness was present when they are alleged to 

 have occurred, and the sociologists who make the 

 affirmations so confidently offer not the slightest 

 scientific evidence. Lacking all support of scien- 

 tific foundation, these deductions are neverthe- 

 less put forward as statements of fact, without so 

 much as a qualifying "it seems to me" or "in my 

 opinion." 



Among the most common of the anthropological 

 romances are the romance of primitive slavery, 

 and the romance of the pretended fundamental 

 hostility between the tribes and hordes of primi- 

 tive men. Of these, we have already had an 

 illustration of the slavery romance, which has been 

 developed in great detail by Professor Lester F. 

 Ward.' For convenience, the end of the quota- 

 tion is reproduced here : 



The first step in the whole process is the conquest 

 of one race by another. . . . The greater part of 

 the conquered race is enslaved, and the institution of 



' See supra, p. ii. 



