THE FAMILY CONSCIENCE. 449 



carried her off in triumph to his own people. It 

 was observed that the foreign wives produced more 

 children, and stronger children, than the homeborn 

 Avives, and also that the nearer the blood-relationship 

 between husband and wife, the more weakly and the 

 less frequent were the offspring. On this account a 

 law was passed forbidding marriage between those who 

 were closely related to one another ; sometimes even 

 it was forbidden to marry within the tribe at all ; and 

 all wives were obtained from foreign tribes by means 

 of capture or exchange. These laws relating to 

 marriage, enacted by the elders, and issued as orders 

 of the Gods, were at first obeyed by the young merely 

 out of fear ; but in the second generation, they were 

 ingrained on the minds of children, and were taken 

 under the protection of the conscience. 



When the clans or families first leagued together in 

 order to form a town, the conscience of each man was 

 confined to his own circle. He left it at home when 

 he went out into the town. He considered it laudable 

 to cheat his fellow townsmen in a bargain, or to tell 

 them clever lies. If he committed a murder or a 

 theft, his conscience uttered no reproach. But each 

 Father was responsible for the crimes of the members 

 of his clan; he might inflict what punishment he chose 

 on the actual offender ; but he himself was the culprit 

 in the eyes of the law, and was condemned to pay 

 the fine. If the municipal government was not fully 

 formed, the injured family took its own revenge ; it 

 did not seek for the thief or murderer himself ; the 

 Individual did not exist ; all the Family to them were 

 one. No man, therefore, could break a law, without 

 exposing his revered father and all the members of his 

 family to expense, and even to danger of their lives. 

 2 F 



