SOCIETY OF ANIMALS. 239 



are made from the savage to the civilized condition of man- 

 kind. This is a very short view of the origin of society, which 

 has been adopted by most authors, both ancient and modern, 

 though many of them have derived the associating principle 

 from very different, and even from opposite causes, which it 

 is no part of our plan either to enumerate or to refute. Some 

 writers, as Aristotle, and a few moderns, implicit followers of 

 his opinions, deny that man is naturally a gregarious or asso- 

 ciating animal. To render this notion consistent with the 

 actual and universal state of the human race, these authors 

 have had recourse to puerile conceits, and to questionable 

 facts, which it would be fruitless to relate. Other writers, 

 possessed of greater judgment and discernment, and less 

 warped with vanity and hypothetical phantoms, have derived 

 the origin of society from its real and only source, Nature 

 herself. 



That the associating principle is instinctive hardly requires 

 a proof. An appeal to the feelings of any human being, and 

 to the universal condition of mankind, is sufficient. These 

 feelings, it may be said, are acquired by education and habit. 

 By these causes, it is true, our social feelings are strengthened 

 and confirmed ; but their origin is coeval with the existence 

 of the first human mind. Let any man attend to the eyes, 

 the features, and the gestures of a child upon the breast 

 when another child is presented to it : both instantly, previ- 

 ous to the possibility of instruction or habit, exhibit the most 

 evident expressions of joy. Their eyes sparkle, their features 

 and gestures demonstrate, in the most unequivocal manner, a 

 mutual attachment, and a strong desire of approaching each 

 other, not with a hostile intention, but with an ardent affec- 

 tion, which, in that pure and uncontaminated state of our be- 

 ing, does honor to human nature. When farther advanced, 

 children who are strangers to each other, though their social 

 appetite is equally strong, discover a mutual shyness of ap- 

 proach. This shyness, or modesty, however, is soon conquer- 

 ed by the more powerful instinct of association. They daily 

 mingle and sport together. Their natural affections, which, 

 at that period, are strong, and unbiased by those selfish and 

 vicious motives which too often conceal and thwart the in- 

 tentions of nature, create warm friendships that frequently 

 continue during their lives, and produce the most beneficial 

 and cordial effects. When we thus see with our eyes, that 

 the associating principle appears distinctly at so early a period, 

 who will listen to those writers who choose to deny that man 

 is, naturally, an associating or gregarious animal 1 



