THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 225 
have been generalized and considered in their due relationships 
to the scheme which takes definite form in the mind. Whether 
in the social communities of insects or those of beavers, among 
mammals, or rooks among birds, tradition has begun to pass 
into the third or rational stage, we do not know. It may be 
so, but probably the development along these lines has not 
been carried far. Presumably in the ant, rook, and beaver 
anything like an ideal scheme of thought based on reflection, if 
it exist, is as yet exceedingly indefinite. 
But even supposing that no animal has yet risen beyond 
the second or intelligent stage, it is none the less important 
to realize that we have here, in animal life, the foundations on 
which may be raised what may, perhaps, be regarded as one 
of the characteristic features of human progress. This charac- 
teristic is the transference of evolution from the organism to 
the environment handed on from generation to generation. 
Thus man, “availing himself of tradition, is able to seize upon 
the acquirements of his ancestors at the point where they left 
them.” * Thus “he has slowly accumulated and organized 
the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation 
of individual life in other animals.” + But he is able to do 
so through the extension, refining, and fixing of that instinctive 
and intelligent tradition which begins to take form in animal 
communities, 
V.—TuHE Evonution or Soctan BEHAVIOUR 
“Animals of many kinds,” said Darwin,t “are social ; 
every one must have noticed how miserable horses, dogs, 
. Sheep, etc., are when separated from their companions. The 
most common mutual service in the higher animals is to warn 
one another of danger. Every sportsman knows how difficult 
* Weismann, “ Essays,” vol. ii., p. 50. 
+ Huxley, “ Collected Essays,” vol. vii., p. 155. 
¢ “The Descent of Man,” vol. i. p. 853, 2nd Ed., 1888. The quotations 
from Darwin in this paragraph and that which follows are somewhat con- 
densed by a few omissions. 
8 
