86 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Paut I. 



Man, from the activity of his mental faculties, cannot 

 avoid reflection ; past impressions and images are inces- 

 santly passing through his mind with distinctness. Now 

 with those animals which live permanently in a body, the 

 social instincts are ever present and persistent. Such ani- 

 mals are always ready to utter the danger-signal, to de- 

 fend the community, and to give aid to their fellows in 

 accordance with their habits ; they feel at all times, with- 

 out the stimulus of any special passion or desire, some de- 

 gree of love and sympathy for them ; they are unhappy 

 if long separated from them, and always happy to be in 

 their company. So it is with ourselves. A man who pos- 

 sessed no trace of such feelings would be an unnatural 

 monster. On the other hand, the desire to satisfy hunger, 

 or any passion, such as vengeance, is in its nature tempo- 

 rary, and can for a time be fully satisfied. Nor is it easy, 

 perhaps hardly possible, to call up with complete vivid- 

 ness the feeling, for instance, of hunger ; nor, indeed, as 

 has often been remarked, of any suffering. The instinct 

 of self-preservation is not felt except in the presence of 

 danger ; and many a coward has thought himself brave 

 until he has met his enemy face to face. The wish for 

 another man's property is, perhaps, as persistent a desire 

 as any that can be named ; but even in this case the satis- 

 faction of actual possession is generally a weaker feeling 

 than the desire ; many a thief, if not an habitual one, after 

 success has wondered why he stole some article. 



Thus, as man cannot prevent old impressions contin- 

 ually repassing through his mind, he will be compelled to 

 compare the weaker impressions of, for instance, past hun- 

 ger, or of vengeance satisfied or danger avoided at the 

 cost of other men, with the instinct of sympathy and good- 

 will to his fellows, which is still present, and ever in some 

 degree active in his mind. He will then feel in his imagi- 

 nation that a stronger instinct has yielded to one which 



