Community Lifem the Animal Kingdom. 86 



tioned, and which Ziegler has borrowed from Darwin's 

 "Descent of Man," may, when purged of arbitrary 

 anthropomorphic interpretations, be recorded also of 

 ants. He who takes the tenns ''fidelity" and ''obedi- 

 ence" as they are applied to human beings, namely as 

 reasonable, voluntary subjection to the demands of 

 duty and authority, can ascribe "fidelity" and "obedi- 

 ence" to baboons as little as to ants. From the point 

 of view of critical psychology it is ridiculous to inter- 

 pret the "slap" given to the young baboon by its senior 

 to be, as among men, an admonition to fidelity and 

 obedience. The imprudent cry uttered by the young 

 baboon, if the story is to be credited at all, excited the 

 instinctive anger of the old apes as they were silently 

 advancing. The instinctive association of certain sen- 

 sile perceptions with certain sensile impulses affords 

 a much simpler and more natural explanation of this 

 fact. If, therefore, Darwin and Ziegler on this account 

 ascribe to baboons fidelity and obedience in the human 

 sense,^ they are but arbitrarily humanizing the brute, 

 as indeed Darwin has done time and again in the book 

 quoted above. 



A slight analogy of what we call fidelity and obedi- 

 ence may indeed be observed in many animals, not 

 only in the higher species, but also in state forming 

 insects. Wherever a certain individual is the center 

 of operation for the instincts of the rest of the com- 

 munity, the latter will show it fidelity and obedience. 

 The swarming bees cluster around their queen 

 "faithful and obedient." This allegiance is, of 



1) See my former essay, "Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal 

 Kingdom." (Herder, St. Louis, Mo.) 



