Coulanges, _La Cité Antique_. Grimm, _Deutsche Rechts-Alterthümer_. Lavalaye, _La Propriété et ses Formes Primitives_. Maine, _Ancient Law_. Maine, _Village Communities_. Maine, _Early Institutions_. Maurer, _Geschichte der Dorf-Verfassung_. Nasse, _Agricultural Communities of the Middle Ages_ (translated by Ouvry). Pictet, _Les Origines Indo-Européennes_. In the account here given of the two most important social forms, the patriarchal family and the village community, the endeavour has been rather to present such a picture of them as may exhibit their chief peculiarities in a sufficiently clear and striking manner, than to enter into a minute examination of the various remains from which the picture has been constructed. It must not be supposed, however, that the representations here given can be completely verified from existing information. They are rather to be looked upon as typical of what these forms may have been in their earliest stage and under favourable circumstances. We only meet with traces of them when undergoing decay. Although the writer fully recognizes the importance of the researches of McLellan and others concerning the earlier conditions of society, no attempt has been made to give an account of the results which have been arrived at in this field of inquiry. Two reasons may be assigned for this omission. Firstly, the intrinsic difficulties of treating the subject in a manner suitable to the ‘general reader’ are, it is conceived, a sufficient excuse for the omission. Secondly, the results at present attained are so vague that the mere statement of them would be valueless without entering into great detail. All that can as yet fairly be regarded as established is either that the Aryan and Semitic races have at one time possessed social customs and practices similar to those which are found in the most barbarous people; or that they have during some period of their history so far amalgamated with, or been influenced by, other races that had just emerged from this state, as to absorb into their traditions and customs traces of a social condition of a much lower and more primitive kind than that in which we first find them. If we try to form any conception of what the earlier state may have been, we at once see that the results at present attained are almost purely negative. All that can be predicated is that at one time a large proportion of the human race did _not_ possess the notions of the family and the marriage tie which were entertained by people in the patriarchal state; that they did _not_ trace blood relationship in the same way. What particular customs immediately preceded or led to the patriarchal family, whether this latter is to be considered as the original social type, and the lower forms are to be regarded as derived from it, or _vice versâ_--to these questions no satisfactory answer can at present be given.