THE WOMAN OF EVOLUTION AND PESSIMISM. 329 
cation vital. Folly and weakness are as harmful in the 
home as in the state. That which is to-day in the home 
to-morrow will be in the state. The wise woman, mother 
of wise men, may not be seen of the world, but her in- 
fluence for good is none the less potent. 
Where the home is not sound the state is insecure. 
The coming man must spring from the home. The 
child of a homeless race can not com- 
pete with him. There is no factor in 
evolution more sure to survive in life 
struggles than the instinct to care for the young. Al- 
truism prevails because it is useful, and this form of 
altruism is potent above all else. Care for the young 
makes the home. It binds the parents together. It 
ennobles the sex relation and makes its impulses worthy 
the name of love. John Fiske has maintained that the 
prolonged infancy of man was the primary factor in his 
separation as a higher type from the brute creation. 
This prolonged infancy demanded a mother’s care and 
a father’s support. In these arose the home. Even in 
nomadic life the family kept together, and the relations 
of the food-winning father and the protecting mother 
were equal in value from the standpoint of race evolu- 
tion. From the home the school is a natural extension. 
It is a further prolongation of infancy with a view to 
a higher ultimate development. 
But all this food-winning and child-helping is a bur- 
den to the individual. The wise man, Schopenhauer 
tells us, hesitates to sacrifice his free- 
dom in equal union with woman. His 
freedom for what? Who is he that he 
should be so occupied with his own affairs? Is it pleas- 
ure that he seeks—pleasure for pleasure’s sake? art for 
art’s sake? rest for rest’s sake? In the process of evo- 
lution there will be no place for him. Nature asks her 
Evolution of 
the home. 
Freedom of 
man. 
