33 Heredity. 



however, very ancient among Buddhists in the east had its rise 

 among a few chosen souls, philosophers or poets, then broadened 

 out and developed, and during the first three centuries of the 

 Christian era it spread out into the world under the influence of 

 the broader ideas and the gentler characters which then prevailed. 

 Humboldt, in his Cosmos, shows that the 'sentiment of nature 'is a 

 thing known only to the moderns in the west 



We might endeavour to show, were this the proper place, that 

 under each of these complex sentiments there are many real or 

 imaginary ideas, each one of which produces in the human soul a 

 simple sentiment; that out of the fusion of these simple sentiments 

 there is formed a total sentiment; but for our present purpose it is 

 enough to have shown that the evolution of sentiment is closely 

 connected with that of the intelligence. The conclusion is, that 

 if heredity is the condition of the specific development of intelli- 

 gence, and if the evolution of sentiment is in strict accord with that 

 of intelligence, then the sentiments too depend on heredity. And 

 here again progress is secured, not only by the external influence 

 of manners and customs, but also by the internal influence of 

 heredity. 



Among acquired sentiments which have been hereditarily aug- 

 mented, we may mention that of fear in many wild animals. Thus, 

 ' when the Falkland Islands were first visited by man, the large 

 wolf-like dogs ( Cams antardiais) fearlessly came to meet Byron's 

 sailors, who, mistaking this ignorant curiosity for ferocity, ran into 

 the water to avoid them ; even recently a man, by holding a piece 

 of meat in one hand and a knife in the other, could sometimes 

 stick them at night On an island in the Sea of Aral, when first 

 discovered by Butakoff, the saigak antelopes, generally very timid 

 and watchful, instead of flying from the men, looked at them with 

 a sort of curiosity. So again, on the shores of the Mauritius, the 

 manatee was not at first in the least afraid of man ; and thus it has 

 been in several quarters of the world with seals and the morse. 

 The birds of several islands have very slowly acquired and 

 inherited a dread of man. At the Galapagos Archipelago I 

 pushed with the muzzle of my gun hawks from a branch, and held 

 out a pitcher of water for other birds to alight on and drink.' x 



1 Variation, etc., vol. i. ch. i. 



