dmitted, however,
that to this day Morgan's work is the most fundamental and exhaustive
of any written on the subject of ancient social development.
Westermarck's "History of Human Marriage" treats the question mainly
from the standpoint of Ethnology and Natural History. As a scientific
treatise it is entirely inadequate, being simply a compilation of data
from all parts of the world, arranged without the understanding of
gentile organizations or of the materialistic conception of history, and
used for wild speculations. Kovalevsky's argument turns on the
proposition that the patriarchal household is a typical stage of
society, intermediate between the matriarchal and monogamic family.

None of these men could discuss the matter from the proletarian point of
view. For in order to do this, it is necessary to descend from the hills
of class assumption into the valley of proletarian class-consciousness.
This consciousness and the socialist mind are born together. The key to
the philosophy of capitalism is the philosophy of socialism. With the
rays of this searchlight, Engels exposed the pious "deceivers," property
and the state, and their "lofty" ideal, covetousness. And the monogamic
family, so far from being a divinely instituted "union of souls," is
seen to be the product of a series of material and, in the last
analysis, of the most sordid motives. But the ethics of property are
worthy of a system of production that, in its final stage, shuts the
overwhelming mass of longing humanity out from the happiness of home and
family life, from all evolution to a higher individuality, and even
drives progress back and forces millions of human beings into
irrevocable degeneration.

The desire for a higher life cannot awake in a man, until he is
thoroughly convinced that his present life is ugly, low, and capable of
improvement by himself. The present little volume is especially adapted
to assist the exploited of both sexes in recognizing the actual causes
which brought about their present condition. By opening the eyes of the
deluded throng and reducing the vaporings of their ignorant or selfish
would-be leaders in politics and education to sober reality, it will
show the way out of the darkness and mazes of slavish traditions into
the light and freedom of a fuller life on earth.

These are the reasons for introducing this little volume to English
speaking readers. Without any further apology, we leave them to its
perusal and