78 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



ture instantly jumped away, but after the pretended 

 beating was over, it was really pathetic to see how per- 

 se veringly he tried to lick his mistress's face and com- 

 fort her. Brehm 13 states that when a baboon in con- 

 finement was pursued to be punished, the others tried 

 to protect him. It must have been sympathy in the 

 cases above given which led the baboons and Cercopi- 

 theci to defend their young comrades from the dogs 

 and the eagle. I will give only one other instance of 

 sympathetic and heroic conduct in a little American 

 monkey. Several years ago a keeper at the Zoological 

 Gardens, showed me some deep and scarcely healed 

 wounds on the nape of his neck, inflicted on him whilst 

 kneeling on the floor by a fierce baboon. The little 

 American monkey, who was a warm friend of this 

 keeper, lived in the same large compartment, and was 

 dreadfully afraid of the great baboon. Nevertheless, as 

 soon as he saw his friend the keeper in peril, he rushed 

 to the rescue, and by screams and bites so distracted the 

 baboon that the man was able to escape, after running 

 great risk, as the surgeon who attended him thought, 

 of his life. 



Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other 

 qualities which in us would be called moral ; and I agree 

 with Agassiz 14 that dogs possess something very like a 

 conscience. They certainly possess some power of self- 

 command, and this does not appear to be wholly the 

 result of fear. As Braubach 15 remarks, a dog will 

 refrain from stealing food in the absence of his master. 

 Dogs have long been accepted as the very type of 

 fidelity and obedience. All animals living in a body 

 which defend each other or attack their enemies 



13 ' Thierleben,' B. i. s. 85. 



14 ' De l'Espece et de la Class.' 1869, p. 97. 



15 ' Der Darwin'scken Art-Lehre,' 1869, s. 54. 



