62 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part I 



sciousness does not tell us whether they are instinctive, 

 having originated long ago in the same manner as with 

 the lower animals, or whether they have been acquired by 

 each of us during our early years. As man is a social 

 animal, it is also probable that he would inherit a ten- 

 dency to be faithful to his comrades, for this quality is 

 common to most social animals. He would in like man- 

 ner possess some capacity for self-command, and perhaps 

 of obedience to the leader of the community. He would 

 from an inherited tendency still be willing to defend, in 

 concert with others, his fellow-men, and would be ready 

 to aid tjiem in any way which did not too greatly inter- 

 fere with his own welfare or his own strong desires. 



The social animals which stand at the bottom of the 

 scale are guided almost exclusively, and those which stand 

 higher in the scale are largely guided, in the aid which 

 they give to the members of the same community, by 

 special instincts ; but they are likewise in part impelled 

 by mutual love and sympathy, assisted apparently by 

 some amount of reason. Although man, as just remarked, 

 has no special instiDcts to tell him how to aid his fellow- 

 men, he still has the impulse, and with his improved in- 

 tellectual faculties would naturally be much guided in this 

 respect by reason and experience. Instinctive sympathy 

 would, also, cause him to value highly the approbation of 

 his fellow-men ; for, as Mr. Bain has clearly shown, 30 the 

 love of praise and the strong feeling of glory, and the 

 still stronger horror of scorn and infamy, " are due to the 

 workings of sympathy." Consequently man would be 

 greatly influenced by the wishes, approbation, and blame 

 of his fellow-men, as expressed by their gestures and lan- 

 guage. Thus the social instincts, which must have been 



the appearance of the latter . . . throws a melancholy damp over the 

 imagination." 



80 'Mental and Moral Science,' 1868, p. 254. 



