They were
members of a tribe, and the fragmentary existence of the single
individual was of no importance when it clashed with the welfare of the
clan. The family--centred round the mother--and the tribe were the real
individuals, in the same way as the swarm of bees, and not the
individual bee, makes the whole. They lived in complete harmony with
nature; they had no spiritual life, no history, for civilisation and the
creation of intellectual values which are the foundation of history
depend on the rise of a community above primitive conditions.
Differentiation had hardly begun to exert its modifying influence; all
men (not unlike the Eastern Asiatics of our day) resembled each other in
looks, character and habits.
In the countries on the Mediterranean (as well as in India and
Babylonia) the first stage of sexual intercourse, irresponsible and
promiscuous, was systematised by religion. The annual spring-festivals
in honour of Adonis, Dionysus, Mylitta, Astarte and Aphrodite,
celebrated unbridled licentiousness.
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