FAMILY INSTINCTS 63 



possession of this parental instinct has an 

 effect on the selection of enemies within the 

 family : the likelihood of their selecting young 

 is much reduced. As has been shown, young 

 are more valuable to the species than old; 

 therefore the species controls Natural Selec- 

 tion in such a way, that more valuable young 

 are preserved at the expense of less valuable 

 parents. Families having this character are 

 more likely to bring their young to maturity, 

 and to thus reproduce themselves, than families 

 in which this parental character is faint or 

 absent. 



Thus, the FAMILY comes to possess this 

 character which has arisen as a variation and 

 has been preserved through heredity : just as 

 within the individual, particular forms, struc- 

 tures, or colours or other character having 

 been born, becomes fixed. 



Natural Selection, dealing with families, 

 produces family characters whose function is 

 to preserve the more valuable members of the 

 family, at the expense of the less valuable. 



To return to parental instincts, closely allied 

 to the sacrificing instinct is a combative one. 

 Parents will attack an enemy of their young. 

 If they prove victorious, the instinct which 

 directed their actions may be called combative ; 



