单项选择题

The Institution of Marriage The Indians, as all other communities of human beings in every age, in every clime (地域), and in every possible condition in respect to civilization or barbarism, have done, lived in families. That is to say, the husband, the wife, and the children formed a natural group and dwelt together in common. The children were under the care of themselves and the husband and wife, once joined, remained united for life. Some persons have imagined that the institution of marriage is an artificial institution, adopted by society as an arrangement proved by experiment to be, on the whole, most advantageous to man. But the universality of this institution proves that it is of higher origin. It is a part of man’’s nature, considered as an animal, that he should have one female partner, and that the union which binds him to his partner, when once she is chosen, should endure for life. It is curious to observe that the provision of nature by which man is led everywhere, and under all circumstances, to the institution of marriage as the foundation of the social state, is in accordance with a general principle which pervades the whole animal creation. The principle is this: General Law of Pairing In all cases where the nurture of the young of any animal, for any reason, requires more than the mother herself alone can do for them, it seems to be a general law of nature in respect to such animals that they are provided with instincts which lead them to pair. A male and female unite, and they remain united until the young no longer need their joint assistance. Thus birds pair, because it is necessary that both should co-operate to build the nest, and also that the father should bring food while the mother sits upon the eggs to hatch them. And lions pair, for one must remain and take care of the young, while the other goes away on distant excursions to procure food. But sheep and other such animals do not pair, for their young do not require the joint attention of father and mother. In respect to the duration of the union thus formed, the principle is that it continues as long as the necessity for it continues; that is, as long as the brood of young ones require the united efforts of both father and mother to protect them. Then — at least so it is supposed in the case of birds — when the season is over and the young ones are grown up to maturity, the union is terminated, the pair separate, and each, at the commencement (开始) of a new season, chooses a mate again. Application to the Case of Man Now, in the case of man, the young require the aid of both parents for their nurture and protection; and inasmuch as each requires this attention for ten or twelve years at least, and as during the time while the first-born is attaining this age others succeed, the period during which the conjoined effort of the parents are required is protracted (拖延), without intermission, during the whole of their lives — that is, through all the portion of it during which their natural vigor continues unimpaired. It follows from this, and from the fact that the numbers of the sexes are equal, that according to the analogy of nature we should have expected that the human species would be provided with instincts leading them to unite in pairs, and to continue so united for life. We find, accordingly, that this is the fact everywhere. The marriage laws of all human societies are consequently made to guard and protect the marriage institution — not to establish it. The institution itself is founded in instincts and principles of our nature existing antecedent to all law. Indeed, the family institution, instead of waiting to be established by law, is often even more important and more prominent in low states of civilization than in high. It is most powerful where laws are weakest. Instead of being created by law and thus following it in the order or time, it is itself rather the origin and source of law. So far as we have any opportunity to trace back the forms of social organization to their source, we find them arising usually, in the first instance, from that primordial (原始的) and elementary bond, the union of husband with wife, which springs at once from the physical constitution and innate instincts of man, and is the germ from which all other systems of authority and subordination come. It was eminently so among the Indians. They lived in families throughout the length and breadth of the land — the families of the same connection being grouped together in tribes. They lived generally in peace, and were engaged in labors of patient industry for providing food and clothing for themselves and their children. The institution of marriage proves to be the practice of higher origin.