MORAL SENSE. 123 



great persistence or steady action of the former at certain 

 seasons of the year during the whole day, may give it for a 

 time paramount force. 



Man a Social Animal. Every one will admit that man is 

 a social being. We see this in his dislike of solitude, and 

 in his wish for society beyond that of his own family. 

 Solitary confinement is one of the severest punishments 

 which can be inflicted. Some authors suppose that man 

 primevally lived in single families; but at the present day, 

 though single families, or only two or three together, roam 

 the solitudes of some savage lands, they always, as far as I 

 can discover, hold friendly relations with other families 

 inhabiting the same district. Such families occasionally 

 meet in council, and unite for their common defense. It 

 is no argument against savage man being a social animal, 

 that the tribes inhabiting adjacent districts are almost 

 always at war with each other; for the social instincts never 

 extend to all the individuals of the same species. Judging 

 from the analogy of the majority of the Quadrumana, it is 

 probable that the early ape-like progenitors of man were 

 likewise social ; but this is not of much importance for us. 

 Although man, as he now exists, has few special instincts, 

 having lost any which his early progenitors may have 

 . possessed, this is no reason why he should not have retained 

 irom an extremely remote period some degree of instinctive 

 love and sympathy for his fellows. We are indeed all con- 

 scious that we do possess such sympathetic feelings;* but 

 our consciousness does not tell us whether they are instinct- 

 ive, having originated long ago in the same manner 

 as with the lower animals, or whether they have been 

 acquired by each of us during our early years. As man is 

 a social animal, it is almost certain that he would inherit a 

 tendency to be faithful to his comrades and obedient to 

 the leader of his tribe; for these qualities are common to 

 most social animals. He would consequently possess some 

 capacity for self-command. Ho would from an inherited 



* Hume remarks (' An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of 

 Morals," edit, of 1751, p. 132), "There seems a necessity for con- 

 fessing that the happiness and misery of others are not' spectacles 

 altogether indifferent to us, but tliai tlie view of the former . . . 

 'ivnmunicates a secret joy; the appearance of the latter . . * 

 throws a laelaiiclioly damp over tke imagination." 



