96 THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE CHAP. 



To mere physical fondness are added subtler attractions 

 of sight and hearing, and these are sublimed in birds and 

 mammals to what we call love. This love of mates 

 broadens out ; it laps the family in its fold ; it diffuses 

 itself as a saturating influence through the societies of 

 animals and of men. " Sociability," Espinas says, " is 

 based on the friendliness of mates." 



The fourth step is the evolution of the family. From 

 monkeys and beavers and many kinds of birds, to ants 

 and bees and diverse insects, many animals illustrate 

 family life. There is no longer the physical continuity 

 characteristic of the colony, but there is a growing 

 psychical unity. It is natural that the first ties of family 

 life should be those between mother and young, and 

 should be strongest when the number of offspring is not 

 very large. But even in some beetles, and more notably 

 in certain fishes and amphibians, the males exhibit 

 parental care and affection ; while in higher animals, 

 especially among birds, the parents often divide the 

 labours of the family. " Children," Lucretius said, " chil- 

 dren with their caresses broke down the haughty temper 

 of parents." 



The fifth step is the combination of families into a 

 society, such as we find illustrated by monkeys and 

 beavers, cranes and parrots, and in great perfection by 

 ants. The members are less nearly related than in the 



/ 



family, but there may be even more unity of spirit. 



We do not say that it is easy to understand how 

 coherence of units led to the formation of a " bodv,' 



* 



how colonies became integrated and the labours of life 

 more and more distributed, how love was evolved from 

 apparently crude attractions between the sexes, how the 

 love of mates was broadened into parental and filial 

 affection, or how families well knit together formed the 

 sure foundations of society ; but it seems quite clear that 

 these are some of the great steps in a wonderful history. 

 Similarly when we say that the sociality and helpful- 

 ness of animals are flowers whose roots are in kinship, 

 we do not suppose that we are explaining them. We 

 are simply tracing them back to their primitive cxpres- 



