Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. MARRIAGE. MARRIAGE is a regulation of man, now established in some form everywhere. By marriage the family is founded ; by the family the higher social organizations become possible. Pairing amongst animals is the outcome of the necessity of reproduction. It suggests the line of evolution our own marriage has followed. The strength of the pairing instinct is in proportion to the necessity for the protection of the young. Where the perpetuation of life is insured by large numbers of young, as in most fishes, pairing is weak or non-existent. The fertilization of the egg in nearly all fishes takes place outside of the body, and there is no sexual congress. In reptiles the egg generally is hatched by the sun, and the young are able to care for themselves when leaving the shell. In the higher forms of life,.whose young, passing through former stages of evolution, are in this period more or less helpless, more care is required. This care at first given entirely by the female, is, as life becomes more complex, and as its preparatory period becomes longer, shared in by the male. In the highest types the male protects, and often provides for, both mother and young. These necessities of life continuation in man have become formalized amongst all of humanity by custom and code into marriage. Marriage then is a legal provision for reproduction. It is a codified expression of the highest animal instincts for the continuation and improvement of life. In this convention man strengthens nature, as we see her manifestations in the sexual relations of other animals. The possession given by monogamy to the husband of the wife, and to the wife of the husband, especially the former, prevents the necessity of contests to maintain the purity of the breed, and the certainty of the p... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.