he has children borne him he is raised ipso facto
from the position of a common soldier to that of a subordinate officer
in the family ranks. But his opportunities for the expression of
individuality are not one whit increased. He has simply advanced a peg
in a regular hierarchy of subjection. From being looked after himself
he proceeds to look after others. Such is the extent of the change.
Even should he chance to be the eldest son of the eldest son, and
thus eventually end by becoming the head of the family, he cannot
consistently consider himself. There is absolutely no place in his
social cosmos for so particular a thing as the ego.

With a certain grim humor suggestive of metaphysics, it may be said of
his whole life that it is nothing but a relative affair after all.

Chapter 3. Adoption.

But one may go a step farther in this matter of the family, and by so
doing fare still worse with respect to individuality. There are certain
customs in vogue among these peoples which would seem to indicate that
even so generic a thing as the family is too personal to serve them for
ultimate social atom, and that in fact it is only the idea of the family
that is really important, a case of abstraction of an abstract. These
suggestive customs are the far-eastern practices of adoption and
abdication.

Adoption, with us, is a kind of domestic luxury, akin to the keeping
of any other pets, such as lap-dogs and canaries. It is a species of
self-indulgence which those who can afford it give themselves when
fortune has proved unpropitious, an artificial method of counteracting
the inequalities of fate. That such is the plain unglamoured view of the
procedure is shown by the age at which the object is adopted. Usually
the future son or daughter enters the adoptive household as an infant,
intentionally so on the part of the would-be parents. His ignorance of
a previous relationship largely increases his relative value; for the
possibility of his making comparisons in his own mind between a former
state of existence and the present one unfavorable to the latter is
not pleasant for the adopters to contemplate. He is therefore acquired
young. The amusement derived from his company is thus seen to be
distinctly paramount to all other considerations. No one cares so
heartily to own a dog which has been the property of another; a fortiori
of a child. It is clearly, then, not as a necessity that the babe is
adopted. If such were the