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marriages produce a considerable excess of male births. If this be so, it can hardly be a mere coincidence that polyandry occurs chiefly among mountaineers and peoples who are endogamous in a very high degree. As for polygyny, there are several reasons why a man may desire to possess more than one wife. Among many peoples the husband has to live apart from his wife during her pregnancy, and as long as she suckles her child. Female youth and beauty have for men a powerful attraction, and among peoples at the lower stages of civilization women generally become old much sooner than in more advanced communities. The liking of men for variety is also a potent factor; and to have many wives is to have many labourers. The barrenness of a wife is another very common reason for the choice of a new partner, as desire for offspring, for various reasons, is universal in mankind. In a savage and barbarous state a man's power and wealth are proportionate to the number of his offspring. Nevertheless, however desirable polygyny may be from the man's point of view, it is prohibited among many peoples, and among most of the others it is exceptional. Where the amount of female labour is limited, and no accumulated property exists, it may be very difficult for a man to keep a plurality of wives. Again, where female labour is of considerable value, the necessity of paying the purchase-sum for a wife is a hindrance to polygyny, which can be overcome only by the wealthier men. Polygyny implies a violation of the feelings of women; hence, where due respect is paid to these, monogamy is considered the only proper form of marriage. The refined passion of love, which depends not only on external attractions, but on sympathy arising from mental qualities, forms a tie between husband and wife which lasts for life; and the true monogamous instinct, the absorbing passion for one, is a powerful obstacle to polygynous habits. It is certain that polygyny has been less prevalent at the lowest stages of civilization -where wars do not seriously disturb the proportion of the sexes; where life is chiefly supported by hunting, and female labour is consequently of slight value; where there is no accumulation of wealth and no distinction of classthan it is at somewhat higher stages; and it seems probable

that monogamy prevailed almost exclusively among our earliest human ancestors. But, though civilization up to a certain point is favourable to polygyny, its higher forms invariably and necessarily lead to monogamy. We have noted that polygyny has, in many ways, become less desirable for the civilized man than it was for his barbarian and savage ancestors, and that other causes have co-operated to produce the same result. Again, polyandry, being due to an excess of men and presupposing an abnormally feeble disposition to jealousy, must at all times have been exceptional; there is no solid evidence for the theory that in early times it was the rule. On the contrary, this form of marriage seems to require a certain degree of civilization. It was probably, in most cases, an expression of fraternal benevolence on the part of the eldest brother, and, if additional wives were afterwards acquired, it led to group-marriage of the Toda type.

As a general rule, human marriage is not necessarily contracted for life, and among most uncivilized and many advanced peoples, a man may divorce his wife whenever he likes. Nevertheless, divorce is an exception among a great many races, even among races of the lowest type; and numerous nations consider, or have considered, marriage a union which must not be dissolved by the husband, except for certain reasons stipulated by custom or law. We also noted instances in which the wife may separate from her husband. The causes by which the duration of human marriage is influenced are, on the whole, but not exactly, the same as those which determine the form of marriage; and, though monogamy frequently coexists with great stability of marriage, this is scarcely the case in the rudest condition of man. 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 been always the same. The dominant tendency of this process at its later stages has been the extension 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 equality between the sexes. 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.

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