He is as yet unknown in England, this being the first
of his works to appear in English.
ELLIE SCHLEUSSNER.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] _cf._ Hartland's "Primitive Paternity" and Frazer's "Golden Bough."
THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE
THE FIRST STAGE: THE SEXUAL INSTINCT
To the generations slowly rising from the dark abyss of time to the
twilight of the Middle Ages, the satisfaction of the sexual instinct
offered fewer difficulties than the gratification of any other need or
desire. With every unpremeditated and cursory indulgence the craving
disappeared from consciousness and left the individual free to give his
mind to the acquisition of the necessities of life which were far more
difficult to obtain. Primitive, prehistoric man lived in the moment.
When there was plenty of food he gorged to repletion, heedless of the
starvation which might be his fate to-morrow or the day after. His
thought had neither breadth nor continuity. It never occurred to him
that there might be a connection between an abrupt and quickly forgotten
embrace and the birth of a child by a woman of the tribe after what
appeared to be an immeasurable lapse of time.
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