| Summary: | "It is hardly the author's fault if this book appears to lay claim to being the Manual of a new Social Science. His primary object was to present in a compact form what history, philosophy, science, and even poetry and fiction have to teach on the subject of marriage. From the collation of the facts disclosed in many independent lines of inquiry certain leading principles are evolved which may be found to be worthy of attention. Hitherto the physical aspect of evolution has almost exclusively engrossed the attention of scientific men, and the important fact remains unexplained that while there is practically no difference in bodily form and structure between savage and civilised man, the numerous races of mankind exhibit much variety of mental capacity, and are consequently more or less fitted to carry on the struggle for existence. As regards the method in which the question of psychological evolution is treated in the following pages, objection may be taken to the frequent allusions made to works of fiction. No doubt the evidence furnished from this source as to prevailing currents of sentiment at a given period is inexact and unscientific. But psychology is as difficult to discuss as questions of taste, and an inquirer into the history of popular sentiment, be he as painstaking as he may, can only hope to arrive approximately at the truth"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)
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