286 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



stone. Lastly, habit in the individual would ultimately 

 play a very important part in guiding the conduct 

 of each member; for the social instinct, together 

 with sympathy, is, like any other instinct, greatly 

 strengthened by habit, and so consequently would 

 be obedience to the wishes and judgment of the 

 community.^ 



i 



In other words, Darwin's thesis, expressed in 



the language used by the mathematicians, is that 

 'the social instincts are the necessary and sufficient 



conditions for the evolution of a moral sense, 

 i The next step in the reasoning, namely that man 



possesses social instincts, hardly needs an elaborate 

 , proof. Darwin says: 



Everyone will admit that man is a social being. 

 We see this in his dislike of solitude, and in his wish 

 for society beyond that of his own family. Solitary 

 confinement is one of the severest punishments which 

 can be inflicted. Some authors suppose that man 

 I primevally lived in single families, but at the present 

 day, though single families, or only two or three 

 together, roam the solitude of some savage lands, they 

 always, as far as I can discover, hold friendly relations 

 with other families inhabiting the same district. 

 Such families occasionally meet in council, and unite 

 for their common defence. . . . Judging from the 

 analogy of the majority of the Quadrumana, it is 

 probable that the early ape-like progenitors of man 

 were likewise social.* 



' The Descent of Man, pp. 113-14. 

 • Idem, pp. 123-24. 



