The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-21
o
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE-"THE DE
CLINE OF MARRIAGE"
ChrOnicl

THE FAMILY N THE STATE-"THE De
CLINE OF MARRIAGE"
The lessening of aptitudes for mar
riage by means of culture falls in with
general laws of human, development,
both in the Individual and the com
munity. All the higher stages of. pro-
gross and civilizatiOn-as well as other
processes collateral to civilization
seem to be liable to a kind of Nemesis
in respect of their lower stages. Like
Chronos, the offspring of human
growth devours its parent. The higher
stage acquires by it's mere advance a
relation of antagonism to the lower.
In Individual development the highest
mental culture is incompatible with
the greatest possible attainment of
physical well-being and muscular
proves. Similarly, in the progress of
communities, the later stages are %
posed to and devOur the earlier. With
the artificial and highly developed
existence of modern life, men tend to
lose, not only the faculties of civiliza-
U4O1s OuO ONC14 O11C 144CCAAS VI h111ALCCC4
ing to them. Just as the teeth, the
digestion, the power of sustaining ex-
tremes of heat and cold, of hunger and
thirst, which so markedly characterize
uncultivated races, become impaired
in higher civilized communities, so
other needs and usages of primitive
society become modified and lessened
by further development. 1t is not
wonderful, then, that in higher stages
of mental and artistic progress mar
riage should become less frequent.
Culture clearly fosters and ac~centuates
individualism, and strong individuality
is naturally opposed to marriage,
which is itself, on a small scale, a re-
preston of individualism. We discern
the same phenomena in other human
processes. Religion, e. g., may become
developed in the individual and COM
munity, into extremes of thought and
ritual, inwhichits primary significance
is wholly lost. The same truth obtains
in different departments of scientific
and philosophical thought. The high
est developments of mathematics and
astronomy appear to falsify u earliest
lessons in these sciences. Metaphysical
philosophy in it's EXTREMIST reach is
wholly opposed to mans first teachings
in that science. Legislation in highly
developed and complicated societies is
often compelled to forego the simple
notions of Justice which suffice for ele-
mentary communities, and even the
art of war-tO take a collateral illustra-
tion-seems likely to achieve such
progress in the methods of wholesale
slaughter as to render it impossible of
adoption to every civilized people. In
short, we seem to have here-sO far as
such an analogy can fairly be pushed
"a somewhat similar phenomenon to
that obtained in natural history, viz,
the existence of partly or wholly
strophied organs, which indicate a
prior stage of development, but which
have lost, to a greater or less extent,
their original utility and meaning. Nor
is the argument above submitted to the
thoughtful reader without it's fair share
of historical confederation. No doubt
the comparison of high stages of cul-
ture in different countries and widely
separated areas of the worlds history
is fraught with illusion from the i'm
possibility of establishing a common
standard of reference; but this much
may, I conceive, be asserted with at
least approximate certainty. There
have been in human history three
especial countries and epochs in which
general culture, intellectual and
aesthetic, attained a very remarkable,
probably unexampled, degree of excel
lence-Athens in the time of Pericles,
Rome in the Augustan age, Italy dur
ing the Renaissance; and each of these
epochs has been distinguished by, for
the time being, a marked diminution
of marriage, especially among the cul-
tured and wealthy classes. Of itself
this indication of history might not
amount to much, but, taken with the
other pleas herein adduced, it certainly
tends to corroborate the position taken
up in this paper-that marriage and
culture are inversely related the one to
the other. g ugenjus," IN The West
minister ReUiew for January.
The Rev. DIR. I. Newton Stranger,
1 -oo4o-. &c I'LL T-s-sL- D-zAz4z-G NJ.