276 SOCIAL PROGRESS 



customs, like all other customs, spread by 

 imitation : unwarlike communities would tend 

 to copy the manners of their more forceful con- 

 querors or neighbours. Man's authority advanced ; 

 woman's declined, and we can trace the progress 

 of this revolution during the period of recorded 

 history. Succession through males is now almost 

 universal amongst races who have any pretension 

 to be civilized. But in legends and fairy tales 

 how often does it not come down to us that 

 anciently a young man might win a kingdom by 

 attracting the affections of a king's daughter! 



But, it may be urged, if the patriarchal system 

 arose out of woman's slavery, how comes it that 

 woman has been so highly esteemed amongst some 

 races which have accentuated strongly the author- 

 ity of her husband ? She might be honoured or dis- 

 honoured under the mastership of man. In Asia the 

 patriarchate has commonly been polygamous. In 

 Northern Europe, under the impulse of peculiar in- 

 stincts, the subjection of the wife had the effect of 

 identifying her interests with those of her husband : 

 servitude grew into partnership, and the chastity 

 which she contributed to the common stock was 

 regarded as her most cherished possession. It 

 might be preserved in the face of whatever 

 temptation, and did not need to be safeguarded 

 by the bars of the harem. 



We may, then, conclude that the family, which 

 appears to be the most natural element in the 

 constitution of society, is in reality an artificial 

 creation the composite result of various im- 

 pulses. Sexual attraction is its foundation ; but 

 this is transitory, and can fortunately be replaced 

 by feelings which spring from our impulses of 

 sociability, habit, and kindness. Selfishness 



