Herrick, Social Reaction. 123 



compelling power. It is rather that I affect the other who par- 

 takes with me in feeling. My affecting him makes him partner 

 in my feeling. It is the element of participation or recognition 

 of self in other which creates obligation. The mere fact that 

 men in Mars feel as we do would not awaken moral response 

 unless it could be showed that we affected them in some way. 

 Professor Fiske has indicated that the long period of help- 

 lessness on the part of the human infant is a very important 

 factor in the intellectual superiority of the individual human be- 

 ing. Still more important to the race is the effect of long-con- 

 tiniaed dependence on the development of society. The tie 

 that binds early societies is to a very large extent this same 

 helpless period of infancy. In most lower animals this period 

 being very short, the family relation covers a very limited 

 period, while in the human family under ordinary circumstances 

 this dependence is a continuing state and the family (and so 

 eventually the tribe) becomes a permanent element to be reck- 

 oned with in all dealings with men.^ It is not necessary to point 

 out the many and far-reaching results of this fact. 



' Note that social insects likewise pass through a helpless stage, requiring 

 active "nursing." 



