o vice die
out; polygamist peoples either import and adopt children from other
countries, or dwindle in numbers, or both. Dynasties and aristocracies
which have disregarded the laws of nature have decreased in numbers and
degenerated in stature; 'mariages de convenance' leave their enfeebling
stamp on the offspring of them (King Lear). The marriage of near
relations, or the marrying in and in of the same family tends constantly
to weakness or idiocy in the children, sometimes assuming the form as
they grow older of passionate licentiousness. The common prostitute
rarely has any offspring. By such unmistakable evidence is the authority
of morality asserted in the relations of the sexes: and so many more
elements enter into this 'mystery' than are dreamed of by Plato and some
other philosophers.

Recent enquirers have indeed arrived at the conclusion that among
primitive tribes there existed a community of wives as of property, and
that the captive taken by the spear was the only wife or slave whom any
man was permitted to call his own. The partial existence of such customs
among some of the lower races of man, and the survival of peculiar
ceremonies in the marriages of some civilized nations, are thought to
furnish a proof of similar institutions having been once universal.
There can be no question that the study of anthropology has considerably
changed our views respecting the first appearance of man upon the earth.
We know more about the aborigines of the world than formerly, but our
increasing knowledge shows above all things how little we know. With all
the helps which written monuments afford, we do but faintly realize the
condition of man two thousand or three thousand years ago. Of what his
condition was when removed to a distance 200,000 or 300,000 years, when
the majority of mankind were lower and nearer the animals than any tribe
now existing upon the earth, we cannot even entertain conjecture. Plato
(Laws) and Aristotle (Metaph.) may have been more right than we imagine
in supposing that some forms of civilisation were discovered and lost
several times over. If we cannot argue that all barbarism is a degraded
civilization, neither can we set any limits to the depth of degradation
to which the human race may sink through war, disease, or isolation.
And if we are to draw inferences about the origin of marriage from
the practice of barbarous nations, we should also consider the
remoter analogy of the animals. Man