276 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



sympathy, which is so important an element 

 among the social instincts. 



With mankind, selfishness, experience, and imi- 

 tation probably add ... to the power of sympathy ; 

 for we are led by the hope of receiving good in return 

 to perform acts of sympathetic kindness to others; 

 and sympathy is much strengthened by habit. In 

 however complex a manner this feeling may have 

 originated, as it is one of high importance to all those 

 animals which aid and defend one another, it will 

 have been increased through natural selection; for 

 those communities which included the greatest 

 number of the most sympathetic members would 

 flourish best, and rear the greatest number of 

 offspring. ^ 



When we enter the realm of social evolution, 

 therefore, the struggle to adapt the physical uni- 

 verse takes on a new aspect. It becomes a struggle 

 of societies against the physical environment, in- 

 stead of individuals, and here mutual aid rises to 

 the rank of first importance. Darwin describes the 

 process by which the small strength and speed of 

 man, his want of natural weapons, etc., are more 

 than counterbalanced, firstly, by his intellectual 

 powers, the development of which he traces chiefly 

 to the social habits of man ; and 



secondly, by his social qualities, which lead him 

 to give and receive aid from his fellowmen. No 

 country in the world abounds in a greater degree with 



' The Descent of Man, p. 122. 



