ON HUMAN NATUKE AND ITS CAPACITIES FOR VIRTUE. 101 



explanation to suppose that the appearance of the mother 

 is the sign and symbol of pleasure, of food, and protection 

 from danger to the young animal from the earliest 

 moment, and that thus association from the earliest dawn 

 of sensation, following upon inherited predisposition, is 

 the true explanation of the filial affections ; the parental 

 being grounded on original instinct, strongly assisted by 

 pity and the principle of association. 



But whatever its origin, the sentiment of sociability 

 was the real internal cement of the primitive societies 

 and communities, and the true source of morality from 

 the inner and conscious side, just as the exigencies and 

 needs of all, the necessity of union against other hostile 

 tribes competing with them for limited food, against 

 formidable wild beasts, or for the purposes of procuring 

 food and shelter, constituted the external pressure con- 

 spiring to the same end of social coherence and conse- 

 quent social morality. The principle of sociability drew 

 aboriginal men together without compulsion, but the 

 necessities of their position would have forced them 

 together, even without any such principle, In short, 

 they found a pleasure in each other's society ; they found 

 the greatest profit in union, and they had further dis- 

 covered by a painful experience the absolute necessity 

 for it. But all this implies the primary virtues and 

 moral rules. There could not be union at all, and still 

 less pleasure and profit in the union, without mutual trust 

 and confidence, without an equitable arrangement and 

 fair division of acquisitions in other words, without 

 the essentials of truth and justice ; and there could be 

 no prosperity without some regard for the general weal, 

 and some at first interested, but afterwards disinterested, 

 efforts to promote it. 



And this principle of sociability or attraction in man 



