80 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



mere force of inheritance, without the stimulus of either 

 pleasure or pain. A young pointer, when it first scents 

 game, apparently cannot help pointing. A squirrel in 

 a cage who pats the nuts which it cannot eat, as if to 

 bury them in the ground, can hardly be thought to act 

 thus either from pleasure or pain. Hence the common 

 assumption that men must be impelled to every action 

 by experiencing some pleasure or pain may be erro- 

 neous. Although a habit may be blindly and implicitly 

 followed, independently of any pleasure or pain felt at 

 the moment, yet if it be forcibly and abruptly checked, 

 a vague sense of dissatisfaction is generally expe- 

 rienced ; and this is especially true in regard to persons 

 of feeble intellect. 



It has often been assumed that animals were in the 

 first place rendered social, and that they feel as a con- 

 sequence uncomfortable when separated from each other, 

 and comfortable whilst together ; but it is a more pro- 

 bable view that these sensations were first developed, in 

 order that those animals which would profit by living 

 in society, should be induced to live together. In the 

 same manner as the sense of hunger and the pleasure of 

 eating were, no doubt, first acquired in order to induce 

 animals to eat. The feeling of pleasure from society 

 is probably an extension of the parental or filial affec- 

 tions ; and this extension may be in chief part attributed 

 to natural selection, but perhaps in part to mere habit. 

 For with those animals which were benefited by living 

 in close association, the individuals which took the 

 greatest pleasure in society would best escape various 

 dangers ; whilst those that cared least for their com- 

 rades and lived solitary would perish in greater numbers. 

 With respect to the origin of the parental and filial 

 affections, which apparently lie at the basis of the 

 social affections, it is hopeless to speculate ; but we 



