utter want of
wholesome intercourse between race and race. For any member of a tribe
that speaks one dialect to cross the borders of a tribe that speaks
another is to make a venture at the hazard of his life." The religious
obligations that fostered and sanctified family life among the Greeks
and Romans and Jews are unknown. Much later in development comes
charity for the child, with the abhorrence of infanticide--against
which the Jewish-Christian charity of 2000 years ago uttered its most
vigorous protests. If the child belonged primarily to the tribe or
state, its maintenance or destruction was a common concern. This
motive influenced the Greeks, who are historically nearer the earlier
forms of social life than ourselves. For the common good they exposed
the deformed child; but also "where there were too many, for in our
state population has a limit," as Aristotle says, "the babe or unborn
child was destroyed." And so, to lighten their own responsibilities,
parents were wont to do in the slow years of the degradation of the
Roman empire, though the interest of the state then required a
contrary policy. The transition to our present feeling of
responsibility for child-life has been very gradual and uncertain,
through the middle ages and even till the 18th century. Strictly it
may be said that all penitentiaries and other similar institutions are
concrete protests on behalf of a better family life. The movement for
the care of children in the 18th century naturally and instinctively
allied itself with the penitentiary movement. The want of regard for
child-life, when the rearing of children becomes a source of economic
pressure, suggests why in earlier stages of civilization all that
charitable apparatus which we now think necessary for the assistance
of children is wanting, even if the need, so far as it does arise, is
not adequately met by the recognized obligations of the clan-family or
brotherhood.

In the case of barbarous races charity and self-support may be
considered from some other points of view. Self-support is secured in
two ways--by marriage and by slavery. "For a man or woman to be
unmarried after the age of thirty is unheard of" (T.H. Lewin, _Wild
Races of South-East India_). On the other hand, if any one is without
a father, mother or other relative, and destitute of the necessaries
of life, he may sell himself and become a slave.