MORAL SENSE. 113 



hardl y be a doubt that our unmarried females would, li ke 

 the worker- beee^ think it a sacred duty to kill their 

 brothers, and mothers would strive to Kill their fertile 

 daughters; and no one would think of interfering.* Never- 

 theless, the bee, or any other social animal, would gain in 

 our supposed case, as it appears to me, some feeling of 

 right or wrong, or a conscience. For each individual 

 would have an inward sense of possessing certain stronger 

 or more enduring instincts, and others less strong or 

 enduring; so that there would often be a struggle as to 

 which impulse should be followed ^ and satisfaction, dissat- 

 isfaction, or even misery would be felt, as past impressions 

 were compared during their incessant passage through the 

 mind. In this case an inward monitor v/ould tell the 

 animal that it w^ould have been better to have followed the 

 one impulse rather than the other. The one course ought 

 to have been followed, and the other ought not; the one 

 would have been right and the other wrong; but to these 

 terms I shall recur. 



Sociability. Animals of many kinds are social; we find 

 even distinct species living together; for example, some 

 American monkeys; and united flocks of rooks, jackdaws 

 and starlings. Man shows the same feeling in his strong 

 love for the dog, which the dog returns with interest. Every 

 one must have noticed how miserable horses, dogs, sheep, 

 etc., are when separated from their companions, and what 



* Mr. H. Sidgwick remarks, in an able discussion on this subject 

 (the " Academy," June 15, 1872, p. 231), "a superior bee, we may 

 feel sure, would aspire to a milder solution of the population ques- 

 tion." Judging, however, from the habits of many or most savages, 

 man solves the problem by female infanticide, polyandry and pro- 

 miscuous intercourse, therefore it may well be doubted whether it 

 would be by a milder method. MissCobbe, in commenting (" Darwin- 

 ism in Morals," ''Theological Review," April, 1872, pp. 188-191) on 

 the same illustration, says, the principles of social duty would be 

 thus reversed; and by this, I presume, she means that the fulfill 

 ment of a social duty would tend to the injury of individuals, but 

 she overlooks the fact, which she would doubtless admit, that the 

 instincts of the bee have been acquired for the good 3f ths commu- 

 nity She goes so far as to say that if the theory of ethics advocated 

 in this chapter were ever generally accepted, ' I cannot but believe 

 that in the hour of their triumph would be sounded the knell of the 

 virtue of mankind." It is to be hoped that the belief in the perma- 

 nence of virtue on this earth is not held by many persons on so weak 

 a tenure. 



