80 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



ence his actions. But our ethical standards fre- 

 quently bid us to restrain both of these instincts. Our 

 ethical standards tell some to sacrifice their own 

 pleasures by giving their life to work in the slums for 

 people vastly their inferiors ; they may direct us to 

 share our food with others, even when we may be 

 starving; they constrain us to control the reproduc- 

 tive instincts except under certain specified condi- 

 tions. No such requirements are placed upon animals 

 by nature, for their instincts frequently impel them 

 toward the very things that our ethical nature for- 

 bids us. How has man developed impulses urging 

 him to act so contrary to the rest of nature? Clearly, 

 some other foundation stone is needed besides the 

 struggle for the life of the species. A second factor 

 seems to be the social instincts. 



Social Instincts 



While it is true that competition is a universal law 

 of life, and that the general result of competition is 

 to lead toward enmity and isolation, it is also true 

 that among the higher animals — and with these only 

 are we concerned — we frequently find evidence of 

 pleasure taken in one another's company. Even 

 among the lower animals we not infrequently find 

 individuals living in companies, like a swarm of flies. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether this can be called the 

 beginning of social instincts. But it is also certain 

 that among many of the higher animals below man 

 such instincts are common. Higher animals do not 

 always respond wholly to the pleasure of the 

 moment, but are somewhat influenced by remem- 

 bered, or perhaps by anticipated pleasures. This 

 leads to their associating in companies. Fishes live 



