[Footnote 253: Supposing that natural selection does exercise some influence of the kind indicated, such influence does not of course, here any more than elsewhere, necessarily imply any appreciation of the nature of the causes at work. On the contrary, as some authorities have pointed out, it is scarcely possible to ascribe to primitive man any conscious realisation of the ill effects of inbreeding (if these exist). These ill effects manifest themselves much too slowly to be observed by the savage with his relatively short memory and his lack of interest in remote events, especially when, as has often been the case, there has been uncertainty as to the nature of paternity. Even if the savage were able to realise the nature of this hereditary influence, it is pretty clear that his actions and feelings would be but little affected thereby, for it is one of the most general characteristics of the primitive mind that it takes but small account of distant consequences, whereas Eugenics involves the appreciation of such consequences in a high degree.] [Footnote 254: "Elements of Folk Psychology", 151.] [Footnote 255: "Studies in Ancient History" (2nd. ed.) 160.] [Footnote 256: "Principles of Sociology", I, 619.] [Footnote 257: "The Origin of Civilisation", 135 ff.] [Footnote 258: "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht", _Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft_, III, 1882, 361.] [Footnote 259: Atkinson and Andrew Lang, "The Primal Law."] [Footnote 260: A full discussion of these theories will be found in Westermarck's "History of Human Marriage" and Frazer's "Totemism and Exogamy".] [Footnote 261: Whatever real truth there may be in this argument, we must not fail to bear in mind that it is admirably adapted for use as a "rationalisation", _i. e._ the fear of evil consequences (dysgenic or other) from marriages between young and old may well be a conscious (and, in a sense, artificial) substitute for the unconscious aversion to such marriages on the ground of their being an indirect expression of incestuous desires. We must therefore be on our guard against the tendency to overemphasise this argument in the absence of adequate objective evidence.] [Footnote 262: It is round this point of course, as we have above shown, that the differences of opinion between Freud and Jung have largely centred.]