Parenthood and Race Culture: An Outline of Eugenics

by C. W. Saleeby

Very interesting, however, in the case of the fishes is the fact observed by Sutherland that “as soon as the slightest trace of parental care is discovered the chance of survival is increased and the birth-rate is lowered.” As a general summary these words of Dr. Parsons will serve:—“Diminution of offspring is a threefold gain to a species. (1) It lessens the vital drain upon the parent. (2) It enables the size and capacity of the limited number of offspring to be increased. (3) In the case of the higher developments of parental care after birth, it concentrates the advantage of that care upon a few instead of scattering it, and thereby weakening its influence, upon many.”

Now how are these facts connected with that relation between the parents which we call marriage, temporary or permanent, foreshadowed or perfected?

It may be submitted that the racial function or survival-value of marriage in all its forms, low or high, animal or human, consists in its services to the principle of motherhood, these services depending upon the help and strength which are afforded to motherhood by fatherhood.

Animal marriage.—Let us now look very briefly at the facts of animal marriage from this point of view. The phrase, animal marriage, may possibly offend the reader, but is there any reason to be offended at the suggestion that the principle of marriage actually has a warrant older even than mankind? It has lately been pointed out by a distinguished naturalist, Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, that animals, like men, have long been groping, so to say, for an ideal form of marriage. We now know, as will be shown, that, contrary to popular opinion, promiscuity does not prevail amongst the lowest races of men. Equally false is the popular notion that promiscuity prevails amongst most of the lower animals. Promiscuity, it is true, does occur, but so also does strict monogamy, “and promiscuous animals, such as rabbits and voles, while high in the scale of fecundity, are low in the scale of general development.” Says Mr. Seton: “It is commonly remarked that while the Mosaic law did not expressly forbid polygamy, it surrounded marriage with so many restrictions that by living up to the spirit of them the Hebrew ultimately was forced into pure monogamy. It is extremely interesting to note that the animals, in their blind groping for an ideal form of union, have gone through the same stages, and have arrived at exactly the same conclusion. Monogamy is their best solution of the marriage question, and is the rule among all the higher and most successful animals.”

The moose, Mr. Seton tells us, has several wives in one season but only one at a time. The hawks practise monogamy lasting for one season, “the male staying with the family, and sharing the care of the young till they are well-grown.” The wolves consort for life, but the death of one leaves the other free to mate again. There is a fourth method “in which they pair for life, and, in case of death, the survivor remains disconsolate and alone to the end. This seems absurd. It is the way of the geese.” The point especially to be insisted upon as regards animal marriage is its evident service to their race-culture, in accordance with the principle here laid down that marriage is of value because it supports motherhood by fatherhood, and that its different forms are of value in proportion as they do so more or less effectively. We may note also, as a corollary to this, that marriage must be more important in proportion as the young of a species are helpless and in proportion as their helplessness is long continued. The importance of marriage for man, therefore, must necessarily be higher than for any of the lower animals.

Human marriage.—We must turn now to human marriage, and the principle which we must remember is that of survival-value. We are discussing a natural phenomenon exhibited by living creatures. This is what so few people realise when they speak of marriage. They cannot disabuse themselves of the idea that it is a human invention, and especially an ecclesiastical invention. Thus, on the one hand, it is supported by persons who base its claims on mystical or dogmatic grounds; whilst, on the other hand, it is attacked by those who are opposed to ecclesiasticism or religion of any kind, and attacked in the name of science—in which, if the fact could only be recognised, is found every possible warrant and sanction, and indeed imperative demand, for this most precious of all institutions. Here we must endeavour to look upon it as an exceedingly ancient fact of life, vastly more ancient than mankind; and in judging it and explaining it we must apply Nature's universal criterion, which is that of its survival-value or service to race-culture. Let us then glance very briefly at the actual facts of human marriage—conceived as an institution by which the survival-value of fatherhood is added to that of motherhood.

The pioneer student of marriage from the standpoint of science was Herbert Spencer, who with great labour supported the conclusion that monogamy is the highest, best and latest form of marriage. But in the absence of the great mass of evidence which is now before us, Spencer too readily assumed the truth of the popular notion that promiscuity was the primitive state, and taught that human marriage has developed from this through polygamy towards the ideal of monogamy. The work of Professor Westermarck, however—Spencer's chief follower in this path—has shown, and later writers have abundantly confirmed it, that this primitive promiscuity never existed. There is no nation or race or clan of man now extant, however primitive or barbaric, that has not definite marriage laws; there is no society on earth, however rude, that does not punish the unfaithful wife. Furthermore, polygamy, the only historical rival of monogamy, is now known to have played a quite trivial part in history, not merely compared with monogamy, but as compared with that which it was supposed to have played. Even in countries which we call polygamous to-day, polygamy is the relatively rare exception and monogamy the rule. On this most important question it is well, however, to quote the words of Professor Westermarck himself:—

“The great majority of peoples are, as a rule, monogamous, and the other forms of marriage are usually modified in a monogamous direction.” “As to the history of the forms of human marriage, two inferences regarding monogamy and polygyny may be made with absolute certainty; monogamy, always the predominant form of marriage, has been more prevalent at the lowest stages of civilisation than at somewhat higher stages; whilst, at a still higher stage, polygyny has again, to a great extent, yielded to monogamy.” “We may thus take it for granted that civilisation, up to a certain point, is favourable to polygyny; but it is equally certain that in its highest forms it leads to monogamy.” “But, though civilisation up to a certain point is favourable to polygyny, its higher forms invariably and necessarily lead to monogamy.”

It is the principle of survival-value that explains the dominance of monogamy at all stages of human society—with the single exception of continuously and wholly militant societies, in which polygamy obtained in consequence of the great numerical excess of women. It is the fate of the children, in which everything is involved, that has determined the history of human marriage. Furthermore, we may see here one more illustration of the truth that quality is ousting quantity in the course of progress, and that a low birth-rate represents a more advanced stage than a high birth-rate. The birth-rate under polygamy is undoubtedly high, but polygamy does not make for the survival and health of the children, and the infant mortality is gigantic. As I have said elsewhere, “the form of marriage which does not permit the babies to survive, they do not permit to survive. There is the beginning and the end of the whole matter in a nutshell. It is not a question of the father's taste and fancy, but of what he leaves above ground when the worms are eating him below.... No system yet conceived can compare for a moment with monogamy in respect of the one criterion which time and death recognise, the fate of the children.”

In a word, the wholly adequate and only possible explanation of the historical fact of the dominance of monogamy is its supreme survival-value. It has competed with every other kind of sex relation and has been selected by natural selection because of its supreme service for race-culture—the most perfect conceivable addition of fatherhood to motherhood.