It has been my aim in this work to ascertain the nature
of the primitive family, and to point out the ideas on
which it is based, as well as the germ of moral growth
which it contains. The family, however, exists within
a larger community, by which it is influenced, so that
such a task impels us at every turn to exceed its narrow
limits. The difficulty of resisting this impulse is in-
creased by the fact that it has been necessary to give
a mainly critical character to this work. The theories.
previously set forth, to which we are opposed, have,
generally speaking, neither admitted nor defined the
border-line between the clan and the family, so that we
were compelled to adapt our criticism to these theories.
Since, however, we had no desire to increase the size of
our work, and the number of the problems on which it
touches, beyond measure, we decided only to enter into
these questions so far as criticism demands, and to
restrict ourselves within narrower limits whenever it
was possible. Hence there may be a certain want of
proportion in the course taken in these inquiries, and we
ask our readers' forgiveness, wherever this is the case.
C. N. STARCKE.