THE HISTORY OF HUMAN MARRIAGE. 



By EDWARD WESTERMARCK, 



Lecturer on Sociology at the University of Finland, Helsingfors. 



8vo. Cloth. $4.00. 



" Even those whose views are here opposed will, I think, acknowledge that Mr. 

 Westermarck is a careful investigator and an acute reasoner, and that his arguments, 

 as well as his conclusions, are worthy of the most careful consideration. . . . Every 

 reader of the work will admire its clearness of style, and the wonderful command of 

 what is to the author a foreign language." — Alfred Russel Wallace. 



"The author ... is known throughout Europe as a scholar of unusual attain- 

 ments and ability. His work is introduced to the reading public by Professor Alfred 

 R. Wallace, who says of it; 'I have seldom met a more thorough or a more philo- 

 sophic discussion of some of the most difficult, and at the same time interesting, 

 problems of the day. The origin and development of human marriages have been 

 discussed by such eminent writers as Darwin, Spencer, Morgan, Tylor, Lubbock, 

 and many others. On some points, Mr. Westermarck has arrived at different, and 

 sometimes at diametrically opposite, conclusions; and he has done so after a most 

 complete and painstaking investigation of all the available facts- With such an 

 array of authority on the one side, and a hitherto unknown student on the other, 

 it will certainly be thought that all the probabilities are against the latter. Yet I 

 venture to anticipate that the verdict of independent thinkers will, on most of these 

 disputed points, be in favor of the newcomer who has so boldly challenged the con- 

 clusions of some of our most esteemed writers.' Professor Westermarck could hardly 

 have had a better presentation to scientific readers than these few words of Professor 

 Wallace. . . . 



"The exhaustive researches of the author (the bare list of titles of authorities 

 examined and quoted covers twenty-nine closely printed pages) culminate in the 

 following paragraph : ' Marriage, generally speaking, has become more durable in 

 proportion as the human race has advanced. Marriage has thus been subject to 

 evolution, in various ways, though the course of evolution has not always been the 

 same. The dominant tendency of this process, at its later stages, has been the exten- 

 sion of the wife's rights. A wife is no longer the husband's property; and according 

 to modern ideas, marriage is, or should be, a contract on the footing of perfect equal- 

 ity between the sexSs. The history of human marriage is the history of a relation 

 in which women have been gradually triumphing over the passions, the prejudices, 

 and the selfish interests of men.' The work is one of remarkable interest, and will 

 undoubtedly arouse lively debate in scientific circles." — Boston Transcript. 



" This is the most scientific treatise yet produced in this special field of investi- 

 gation, and we note three prime characteristics of a scientific method. The facts 

 upon which its theory is based have been collected in enormous quantity from the 

 literature and the observation of all ages, for, as the author says, the first condition 

 of success is that ' there should be a rich material; what is wanting in quality should 

 be made up in quantity.* Again, in the interpretations of existing phenomena the 

 writer has sought to guard against the double danger of ' putting into them a foreign 



