While the family is listed by Cooley among primary groups, the notion is gaining ground that it is primary in a unique sense which sets it apart from all other social groups. The biological interdependence and co-operation of the members of the family, intimacies of closest and most enduring contacts have no parallel among other human groups. The interplay of the attractions, tensions, and accommodations of personalities in the intimate bonds of family life have up to the present found no concrete description or adequate analysis in sociological inquiry. The best case studies of family life at present are in fiction, not in the case records of social agencies, nor yet in sociological literature. Arnold Bennett's trilogy, _Clayhanger_, _Hilda Lessways_, and _These Twain_, suggests a pattern not unworthy of consideration by social workers and sociologists. _The Pastor's Wife_, by the author of _Elizabeth and Her German Garden_, is a delightful contrast of English and German mores in their effect upon the intimate relations of family life. In the absence of case studies of the family as a natural and cultural group the following tentative outline for sociological study is offered: 1. _Location and extent in time and space._--Genealogical tree as retained in the family memory; geographical distribution and movement of members of small family group and of large family group; stability or mobility of family; its rural or urban location. 2. _Family traditions and ceremonials._--Family romance; family skeleton; family ritual, as demonstration of affection, family events, etc. 3. _Family economics._--Family communism; division of labor between members of the family; effect of occupation of its members. 4. _Family organization and control._--Conflicts and accommodation; superordination and subordination; typical forms of control--patriarchy, matriarchy, consensus, etc.; family _esprit de corps_, family morale, family objectives; status in community. 5. _Family behavior._--Family life from the standpoint of the four wishes (security, response, recognition, and new experience); family crises; the family and the community; familism versus individualism; family life and the development of personality. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY I. THE DEFINITION OF SOCIETY (1) Kistiakowski, Dr. Th. _Gesellschaft und Einselwesen; eine methodologische Studie._ Berlin, 1899. [A review and criticism of the principal conceptions of society with reference to their value for a natural science of society.] (2) Barth, Paul. _Die Philosophie der Geschichte als Sociologie._ Leipzig, 1897. [A comparison of the different schools and an attempt to interpret them as essays in the philosophy of history.] (3) Espinas, Alfred. _Des sociétés animales._ Paris, 1877. [A definition of society based upon a comparative study of animal associations, communities, and societies.]