io6 



The Descent of Man. 



Fart 1. 



been with the unusual and opposite feeling of hatred between 

 the nearest relations, as with the worker-bees which kill their 

 brother-drones, and with the queen-bees which kill their 

 daughter-queens; the desire to destroy their nearest relations 

 having been in this case of service to the community. Parental 

 affection, or some feeling which replaces it, has been developed 

 in certain animals extremely, low in the scale, for example, in 

 star-fishes and spiders. It is also occasionally present in a few 

 members alone in a whole group of animals, as in the genus 

 Forficula, or earwigs. 



The all-important emotion of sympathy is distinct from that 

 of love. A mother may passionately love her sleeping and 

 passive infant, but she can hardly at such times be said to feel 

 sympathy for it. The love of a man for his dog is distinct from 

 sympathy, and so is that of a dog for his master. Adam Smith 

 formerly argued, as has Mr. Bain recently, that the basis of 

 sympathy lies in our strong retentiveness of former states of 

 pain or pleasure. Hence, " the sight of another person en- 

 " during hunger, cold, fatigue, revives in us some recollection of 

 " these states, which are painful even in idea." We are thus 

 impelled to relieve the sufferings of another, in order that our 

 own painful feelings may be at the same time relieved. In like 

 manner we are led to participate in the pleasures of others. 12 * 1 

 But I cannot see how this view explains the fact that sympathy 

 is excited, in an immeasurably stronger degree, by a beloved, 

 than by an indifferent person. The mere sight of suffering, 

 independently of love, would suffice to call up in us vivid 

 recollections and associations. The explanation may lie in the 

 fact that, with all animals, sympathy is directed solely towards 

 the members of the same community, and therefore towards 

 known, and more or less beloved members, but not to all the 

 individuals of the same species. This fact is not more sur- 

 prising than that the fears of many animals should be directed 

 against special enemies. Species which are not social, such as 

 lions and tigers, no doubt feel sympathy for the suffering of 

 their own young, but not for that of any other animal. With 



21 See the first and striking 

 chapter in Adam Smith's 'Theory 

 of Moral Sentiments.' Also Mr. 

 Bain's ' Mental and Moral Science,' 

 1868, p. 244, and 275-282. Mr. 

 Bain states, that "sympathy is, in- 

 " directly, a source of pleasure to 

 " the sympathiser ;" and he accounts 

 for this through reciprocity. He 

 eroarks th.it "the person benefited, 



" or others in his stead, may make 

 " up, by sympathy and good offices 

 " returned, for all the sacrifice." 

 But if, as appears to be the case, 

 sympathv is strictly an instinct, 

 its exercise would give direct plea- 

 sure, in the same manner as th« 

 exercise, as before remarked, of al- 

 most every other instinct. 



