As, hitherto, all the theories advanced relative to the evolution of the human race and the establishment of society on a political and territorial basis have been founded on preconceived notions of the superiority of the characters peculiar to the male, it is believed, or at least assumed, that the ascendency gained by man over woman during the Latter Status of barbarism constitutes a regular, orderly, and necessary step in the direct line of progress; and, as under masculine supremacy, a certain degree of advancement has been possible, it is assumed that the nobler animal, man, having gained the ascendency over the weaker animal, woman, his progress in the future is to increase in a sort of geometrical ratio, while she, still bound by physical disabilities and weighted by the baneful effects of past limitations and restrictions, must continue far in the rear of her better endowed and more thoroughly equipped male mate. However, in this conception of the facts of biology, woman is not left without a crumb of comfort; for, in the forlorn and helpless condition to which it condemns her, she is given to understand that if for many successive generations girls be constantly trained in masculine methods, they may eventually be able to admire, and possibly in a measure to comprehend, some of the less stupendous mental achievements of their brothers; but, according to the savants, any attempt on the part of women to compete with men in the higher walks of life must result in increased physical weakness, in the immediate degeneration of the female sex, and in disaster and ruin to the entire race. When we remember that investigations into the conditions surrounding primitive society have for the most part been conducted under the influence of prejudices similar to those which have prompted the above assumptions, it is not singular that in a majority of cases in which the early status of women has been discussed, and in which the organization of society, the fundamental principles of government, the origin of the institution of marriage, the monogamic family, and the growth of the god-idea, have been the topics under discussion, the conclusions arrived at have been not wholly warranted by the facts at hand. In an investigation of the subject of human development, we must bear in mind the fact that all the principal existing institutions have sprung from germs of thought which originated under primitive conditions of the race. Government, language, marriage, the modern family, and our present system of the accumulation and distribution of wealth, have all been evolved from the necessities of early human existence, or from primitive ideas conceived according to the peculiar bias which had been given to the female and male organisms prior to the appearance of mankind upon the earth, and which have since been developed in accordance with the laws which govern human growth.