Chap. IV. Moral Sense. 103 



me, saw Indian crows feeding two or three of their comparrloiis 

 which were blind ; and I have heard of an analogous case with 

 the domestic cock. We may, if we choose, call these actions 

 instinctive ; but such cases are much too rare for the develop- 

 ment of any special instinct. 14 I have myself seen a dog, who 

 never passed a cat who lay sick in a basket, and was a great 

 friend of his, without giving her a few licks with his tongue, the 

 surest sign of kind feeling in a dog- 

 It must be called sympathy that leads a courageous dog to 

 fly at any one who strikes his master, as he certainly will. I 

 saw a person pretending to beat a lady, who had a very timid 

 little dog on her lap, and the trial had never been made before ; 

 the little creature instantly jumped away, but after the pretended 

 beating was over, it was really pathetic to see how perseveringly 

 he tried to lick his mistress's face, and comfort her. Brehm 15 

 states that when a baboon in confinement 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 

 Cercopitheci to defend their young comrades from the dogs and 

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

 and heroic conduct, in the case of a little American monkey. 

 Several years ago a keeper at the Zoological Gardens shewed me 

 some deep and scarcely healed wounds on the nape of his own 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 fame large compartment, and was dreadfully 

 afraid of the great baboon. Nevertheless, as soon as. he saw his 

 friend in peril, he rnshed to the rescue, and by screams and bites 

 so distracted the baboon that the man was able to escape, after, 

 as the surgeon thought, running great risk of his life. 



Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities 

 connected with the social instincts, which in us would be called 

 moral ; and I agree with Agassiz 16 that dogs possess something 

 very like a conscience. 



Dogs j>ossess some power of self-command, and this does not 

 appear to be wholly the result of fear. As Braubach 1 ' remarks, 

 they will refrain from stealing food in the absence of their 

 master. They have long been accepted" as the very type oi 

 fidelity and obedience. But the elephant is likewise very faith- 

 ful to his driver or keeper, and probably considers him as the 



11 As Mr. Bain states, " effective 16 ' De 1'Espece ?t de la Classe,' 



w aid to a sufferer springs from sym- 18(39, p. 97. 



" pathy proper :"' Mental and Moral l7 ' Die Darwin'sche Art-Lehre 3 



Science,' 1868, p. 245. 1869, s. $£. 



u 'Thieylebcn, B. i. s. 85. 



