296 THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER. 



development. As the other half of the arch on which 

 the whole higher world is built, his taming, his do- 

 mestication, his moral discipline, are vital ; and in the 

 nature of things this was the next great operation 

 undertaken by Evolution. 



The first step in the transition was to relate him, 

 definitely and permanently, to the Mother. And here 

 a formidable initial obstacle had to be encountered. 

 The apathy and estrangement between husband and 

 wife in the animal world is radical and universal. 

 There is almost no such thing there as married life. 

 Marriage, in anthropology, is not a word for an oc- 

 casion, but for a state; it is not, that is to say, a 

 wedding, but a dwelling together throughout life of 

 husband and wife. Now when Man emerged from the 

 animal creation this institution of conjugal life had 

 not been arrived at. Marriage like everything else 

 has been slowly evolved, and until it was evolved, 

 until they learned to dwell continually together, there 

 was no chance for mutual love to spring up between 

 male and female. In Nature the pairing season is 

 usually but an incident. It lasts only a very short 

 time, and during the rest of the year, with some ex- 

 ceptions the sexes remain apart. From the investi- 

 gations of Westermarck, who has lately contributed to 

 sociology the most masterly account of the Evolu- 

 tion of Marriage we possess it appears more than 

 probable that the earliest progenitors of Man had also 

 a pairing season, and that the young were born at a 

 particular time of the year, and never at any other 

 time. All the animals nearest to Man in Nature have 

 such a season, and there are only a few known the 

 elephant for instance, and some of the whales which 



