Note 26 — Chapter I · THE PATRIARCHAL THEORY

"The rudiments of the social state, so far as they are known to us at all, are known through testimony of three sorts—accounts by contemporary observers of civilization less advanced than their own, the records which particular races have preserved concerning their primitive history, and ancient law." Of these three sources of information, Maine regards ancient law as the best. He fails entirely to appreciate the true importance of the first source, from which, obviously, are derived most of the data of recent ethnical, anthropological, and sociological investigation, including much that Maine himself has presented. Cf. the criticisms by Spencer, Principles of Sociology, I, 713, 714; Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, 6 ff.; McLennan, Patriarchal Theory, 29, 30.