Chap. III. MORAL SENSE. 85 



for tlieir common defence. It is no argument against 

 savage man being a social animal, that the tribes in- 

 habiting adjacent districts are almost always at war 

 with each other ; for the social instincts never extend 

 to all the individuals of the same species. Judging 

 from the analogy of the greater number of the Quad- 

 rumana, it is probable that the early ape-like pro- 

 genitors of man were likewise social ; but this is not of 

 much importance for us. Although man, as he now 

 exists, has few special instincts, having lost any which 

 his early progenitors may have possessed, this is no 

 reason why he should not have retained from an ex- 

 tremely remote period some degree of instinctive love 

 and sympathy for his fellows. We are indeed all con- 

 scious that we do possess such sympathetic feelings ; 19 

 but our consciousness 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 tendency to be faithful to his comrades, 

 for this quality is common to most social animals. He 

 would in like manner 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 them in any 

 way which did not too greatly interfere with his own 

 welfare or his own strong desires. 



The social animals which stand at the bottom of the 



19 Hume remarks ('An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,' 

 edit, of 1751, p. 132), " there seems a necessity for confessing that the 

 " happiness and misery of others are not spectacles altogether iu- 

 " different to us, but that the view of the former . . . communicates a 

 " secret joy; the appearance of the latter . . . throws a melancholy 

 " damp over the imagination." //-" ' ^ 



ILtB 



