ethics, but from expediency. Their
devotion to their children is greater than a similar virtue ever has
been at any previous time, and they prove their willingness to make the
utmost sacrifices for them. In fact, very many of them are unwilling to
have more children because it would limit what they can do for those
they have. In short, the customs and their motives have changed very
little since the days of savagery.

+330. Mores of respect or contempt for the aged.+ In the introductory
paragraph to this chapter it was observed that there are two sets of
mores as to the aged: (_a_) in one set of mores the teaching and usages
inculcate conventional respect for the aged, who are therefore
arbitrarily preserved for their wisdom and counsel, perhaps also
sometimes out of affection and sympathy; (_b_) in the other set of mores
the aged are regarded as societal burdens, which waste the strength of
the society, already inadequate for its tasks. Therefore they are
forced to die, either by their own hands or those of their relatives. It
is very far from being true that the first of these policies is
practiced by people higher up in civilization than those who practice
the second. The people in lower civilization profit more by the wisdom
and counsel of the aged than those in higher civilization, and are
educated by this experience to respect and value the aged. "The
introduction of the father-right won more respect for the aged
man."[984] In some cases we can see the two codes in strife. Amongst the
ancient Teutons the father could expose or sell his children under age,
and the adult son could kill his aged parents.[985] There was no fixed
duty of child to parent or of parent to child.

+331. Ethnographical illustrations of respect to the aged.+ "The
people of Madagascar pay high honor to age and to parents. The
respect to age is even exaggerated." The Hovas always pay formal
respect to greater age. If two slaves are carrying a load
together, the younger of them will try to carry it all.[986] In
West Africa, "all the younger members of society are early
trained to show the utmost deference to age. They must never come
into the presence of aged persons or pass by their dwellings
without taking off their hats and assuming a crouching gait. When
seated in their presence it must always be at a 'respectful
distance,'--a distance proportioned to the difference in their
ages and position in societ