for thousands, of years, with little or no change
in the material conditions of life, the desires, institutions, and moral
principles of men, their religious, political, domestic, and sexual
institutions, have gradually shaped themselves in accordance with these
conditions; and a certain harmony, and homogeneity, and tranquillity,
pervades the society.

In societies in that rapid state of change in which our modern societies
find themselves, where not merely each decade, but each year, and almost
day brings new forces and conditions to bear on life, not only is the
amount of suffering and social rupture, which all rapid, excessive,
and sudden change entails on an organism, inevitable; but, the new
conditions, acting at different angles of intensity on the different
individual members composing the society, according to their positions
and varying intelligence, are producing a society of such marvellous
complexity and dissimilarity in the different individual parts, that
the intensest rupture and disco-ordination between individuals is
inevitable; and sexual ideals and relationships must share in the
universal condition.

In a primitive society (if a somewhat prolix illustration may be
allowed) where for countless generations the conditions of life had
remained absolutely unchanged; where for ages it had been necessary that
all males should employ themselves in subduing wild beasts and meeting
dangerous foes, polygamy might universally have been a necessity, if the
race were to exist and its numbers be kept up; and society, recognising
this, polygamy would be an institution universally approved and
submitted to, however much suffering it entailed. If food were scarce,
the destruction of superfluous infants and of the aged might also always
have been necessary for the good of the individuals themselves as well
as of society, and the whole society would acquiesce in it without any
moral doubt. If an eclipse of the sun had once occurred in connection
with the appearance of a certain new insect, they mighty universally
regard that insect as a god causing it; and ages might pass without
anything arising to disprove their belief. There would be no social or
religious problem; and the view of one man would be the view of all
men; and all would be more or less in harmony with the established
institution and customs.

But, supposing the sudden arrival of strangers armed with superior
weapons and knowledge, who should extermin