82 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



sight of suffering, independently of love, would suffice 

 to call up in us vivid recollections and associations. 

 Sympathy may at first have originated in the manner 

 above suggested; but it seems now to have become 

 an instinct, which is especially directed towards be- 

 loved objects, in the same manner as fear with ani- 

 mals is especially directed against certain enemies. As 

 sympathy is thus directed, the mutual love of the 

 members of the same community will extend its limits. 

 No doubt a tiger or lion feels sympathy for the suffer- 

 ings of its own young, but not for any other animal. 

 With strictly social animals the feeling will be more 

 or less extended to all the associated members, as we 

 know to be the case. With mankind selfishness, expe- 

 rience, and imitation probably add, as Mr. Bain has 

 shewn, to the power of sympathy ; for we are led 

 by the hope of receiving good in return to perform 

 acts of sympathetic kindness to others ; and there can 

 be no doubt that the feeling of sympathy is much 

 strengthened by habit. In however complex a manner 

 this feeling may have originated, as it is one of high 

 importance to all those animals which aid and defend 

 each other, it will have been increased, through natural 

 selection ; for those communities, which included the 

 greatest number of the most sympathetic members, 

 would flourish best and rear the greatest number of 

 offspring. 



In many cases it is impossible to decide whether 

 certain social instincts have been acquired through 

 natural selection, or are the indirect result of other 

 instincts and faculties, such as sympathy, reason, expe- 

 rience, and a tendency to imitation ; or again, whether 

 they are simply the result of long-continued habit. 

 So remarkable an instinct as the placing sentinels to 

 warn the community of danger, can hardly have been 



