The fact that the breaking up of traditions throws men back upon immediate human nature has, however, its good as well as its bad side. It may obscure those larger truths that are the growth of time and may let loose pride, sensuality and scepticism; but it also awakens the child in man and a childlike pliability to the better as well as the worse in natural impulse. We may look, among people who have lost the sense of tradition, for the sort of virtues, as well as of vices, that we find on the frontier: for plain dealing, love of character and force, kindness, hope, hospitality and courage. Alongside of an extravagant growth of sensuality, pride and caprice, we have about us a general cult of childhood and womanhood, a vast philanthropy, and an interest in everything relating to the welfare of the masses of the people. The large private gifts to philanthropic and educational purposes, and the fact that a great deal of personal pride is mingled with these gifts, are equally characteristic of the time. And, after all, there is never any general state of extreme disintegration. Such as our time suffers from in art and social relations is chiefly the penalty of a concentration of thought upon material production and physical science. In these fields there is no lack of unified and cumulative endeavor—though unhuman in some aspects—resulting in total achievement. If we have not Dante and gothic architecture, we have Darwin and the modern railway. And as fast as the general mind turns to other aims we may hope that our chaotic material will take on order. FOOTNOTES: [153] The Poet. Emerson. [154] See the article by R. L. O’Brien in the Atlantic Monthly, Oct., 1904. [155] Inaccurately, because the full development of the individual requires organization [156] Jane Addams. CHAPTER XXXI DISORGANIZATION: THE FAMILY OLD AND NEW RÉGIMES IN THE FAMILY—THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE—“SPOILED” CHILDREN—THE OPENING OF NEW CAREERS TO WOMEN—EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN POINTS OF VIEW—PERSONAL FACTORS IN DIVORCE—INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS—CONCLUSION. The mediæval family, like other mediæval institutions, was dominated by comparatively settled traditions which reflected the needs of the general system of society. Marriage was thought of chiefly as an alliance of interests, and was arranged by the ruling members of the families concerned on grounds of _convenance_, the personal congeniality of the parties being little considered.