19 
as to this, because they are so weak as to be scarcely tangible. But 
here is his own summary of them : — 
“ Thus we can trace up, among races in different degrees of civilization, 
every step, from the treatment of woman as a mere chattel, to the sacred 
idea of matrimony as it exists among ourselves ; and we find clear evidence 
that the gradual change has been one of progress and not degradation.” 
I cannot agree with this. And I fear the great change 
introduced by Christianity in this respect — of which Sir John 
Lubbock takes no notice — is scarcely now maintained. We need 
not point to Mormonism in illustration of a tendency to which Sir 
John Lubbock simply shut his eyes ; we can also find laxity enough 
in the present day very much nearer home. 
29. Sir John next glances at arbitrary customs as proving unity 
of descent, and discusses at length an argument from the univer- 
sality of certain superstitions connected with sneezing, advanced by 
the witty Judge Halliburton in the Nova Scotian Institute of 
Natural Science. Sir John then goes on, in opposition : — 
“To justify such a conclusion, the custom must be demonstrably 
arbitrary. The belief that two and two make four, the division of the 
year into twelve months , and similar coincidences, of course, prove nothing: 
but I very much doubt the existence of any universal, or even general , 
custom of a clearly arbitrary character .” [The italics are mine.] 
Strangely enough while thus writing, Sir John has himself 
actually named one such world-wide arbitrary custom, which in 
his eager pleading he overlooks. “ The division of the year into 
twelve months " is purely arbitrary. There are thirteen months (or 
moons) in the year ; and yet the division into twelve is “ universal," 
wherever there are traces of civilization. The custom is “ demon- 
strably arbitrary" and “ therefore it justifies and proves the con- 
clusion" Sir John disputes ! 
30. In connection with that artificial and arbitrary division of 
the year, we have a cognate instance and a much more remarkable 
one of pure arbitrariness, in the mapping of the starry firmament 
into constellations of stars, grouped in connection with the imaginary 
figures of men and animals, and divided into the twelve signs of 
the zodiac. And this purely arbitrary custom is common to all 
the whole world where there is the least knowledge of astronomy 
retained. It is absolutely universal — common to Egypt, Assyria, 
Greece, China, India, Mexico ; — the figures, too, employed are 
almost everywhere identical, though in Central America there is 
most divergence in the actual figures — the least remains of this 
manifestly common tradition. As the sole or most probable key 
to this marvellous universal tradition and evidence of the common 
origin and antiquity of civilization, I must be content here to refer 
c 2 
