198 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



gregarious state has exceptional advantages in the 

 upward struggle. 



One of these advantages, obviously, is the mere 

 physical strength of numbers. But there is another 

 and a much more important one — the mental 

 strength of a combination. Here is a herd of 

 deer, scattered, as they love to be, in a string, 

 quarter of a mile long. Every animal in the 

 herd not only shares the physical strength of all 

 the rest, but their powers of observation. Its fore- 

 sight in presence of possible danger is the foresight 

 of the herd. It has as many eyes as the herd, 

 as many ears, as many organs of smell, its nervous 

 system extends throughout the whole space covered 

 by the line ; its environment, in short, is not only 

 what it hears, sees, smells, touches, tastes, but what 

 every single member hears, sees, smells, touches, 

 tastes. This means an enormous advantage in the 

 Struggle for Life. What deer have to arm them- 

 selves most against is surprise. When it comes to 

 an actual fight, comrades are of little use. At that 

 crisis the others run away and leave the victims to 

 their fate. But in helping one another to avert 

 that crisis, the value of this mutual aid is so great 

 that gregarious animals, for the most part timid and 

 defenceless as individuals, have survived to occupy 

 in untold multitudes the highest places in Nature, 



