THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE CYCLE 165 



tion, but are working together for tlie benefit of both, 

 the mother putting forth energy and giving nourish- 

 ment, but the child so acting upon her as to enable her 

 to do so without exhaustion or loss " {Brit. Med. Journ., 

 Feb. 14, 1914, p. 349). There is evidence that the child 

 may help the mother to make the most of her food 

 and may act as a bracing tonic. It is very interesting 

 to find Herbert Spencer, a bachelor philosopher, remark- 

 ing that " parenthood produces a mental exaltation not 

 otherwise producible " ; there is now definite physio- 

 logical evidence that the unborn child may activate the 

 tissues and organs of its mother to greater vitality. 

 The probability is that the future will see a facilitatmg 

 of the patience of maternity, a removal of dangers and 

 a reduction of irksomeness — an amelioration which may 

 lessen the evasion of motherhood on the part of types 

 of fine physical and intellectual quality. 



§ 3. Infancy and Its Fragility 

 The second chapter is that of infancy — helpless, 

 fragile, in certain aspects adorable, infancy. Three 

 biological notes are very plain, {a) The prolonged 

 infancy characteristic of mankind has almost certainly 

 been a factor in the evolution of human gentleness 

 and sympathy. Opinions may difier as to the impor- 

 tance of the arboreal apprenticeship served by man's 

 pre-human ancestry, which meant a reduction of the 

 offspring to one at a time (see Wood Jones, Arboreal 

 Man, 1916), and the habit on the part of both parents 

 of carrying the baby about among the branches — a 



