en. xxu.] GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY. 343 



a special reason may be assigned why Nature, ^ hich never 

 makes long jumps, must have been incapable of making this 

 particular jump. Throughout the animal kingdom the period 

 of infancy is correlated with feelings of parental affection, 

 sometimes confined to the mother, but often shared Iiy the 

 father, as in the case of animals which mate. Where, as 

 among the lower animals, there is no infancy, there is no 

 parental affection. Where the infancy is very short, the 

 parental feeling, though intense while it lasts, presently dis 

 appears, and the offspring cease to be distinguished from 

 strangers of the same species. And in general the duration 

 of the feelings which insure the protection of the offspring 

 is determined by the duration of the infancy. The agency 

 of natural selection in maintaining this balance is too obvi 

 ous to need illustration. Hence, if long infancies could have 

 suddenly come into existence among a primitive race of 

 ape-like men, the race would have quickly perished from 

 inadequate persistence of the parental affections. The pro 

 longation must therefore have been gradual, and the same 

 increase of intelligence to which it was due must also have 

 prolonged the correlative parental feelings, by associating 

 them more and more with anticipations and memories. The 

 concluding phases of this long change may be witnessed 

 in the course of civilization. Our parental affections now 

 endure through life ; and while their fundamental instinct 

 is perhaps no stronger than in savages, they are, neverthe 

 less, far more effectively powerful, owing to our far greater 

 power of remembering the past and anticipating the future. 



I believe we have now reached a very thorough and satis 

 factory explanation of the change from Gregariousness to 



to learn to walk, holding on to convenient objects of support, lilco a humnn 

 infant. Up to this time it lies on its back, tossing about and examining its 

 hands and feet. A monkey at the same age has reached maturity, so far *s 

 locomotion and prehension are concerned. See Mr. Wallace s interesting ex 

 perience with an infant orang-outang, in his Malay Archipelago, vol. i 

 pp. 68 71. 



