Effect of Prolonged Childhood 289 



remaining for a long-time with their parents ; and this 

 extension may be attributed in part to habit, but 

 chiefly to natural selection. With those animals 

 which were benefited by living in close association, 

 the individuals which took the greatest pleasure in 

 society would best escape various dangers; while 

 those that cared least for their comrades, and lived 

 solitary, would perish in greater numbers. With 

 respect to the origin of the parental and filial affections, 

 which apparently lie at the base of the social instincts, 

 we know not the steps by which they have been gained; 

 but we may infer that it has been to a large extent 

 through natural selection . . . Parental affection, 

 or some feeling which replaces it, has been developed 

 in certain animals extremely low in the scale, for 

 example, in star-fishes and spiders.^ 



From this extension of the filial and parental 

 affections have come the important social qualities 

 of sympathy, fidelity, and courage: 



Turning now to the social and moral faculties. In 

 order that primeval men, or the ape-like progenitors 

 of man, should become social, they must have acquired 

 the same instinctive feelings which impel other ani- 

 mals to live in a body; and they no doubt exhibited 

 the same general disposition. They would have felt 

 uneasy when separated from their comrades, for whom 

 they would have felt some degree of love ; they would 

 have warned each other of danger, and have given 

 mutual aid in attack or defence. All this implies some 

 degree of sympathy, fidelity, and courage. Such 

 social qualities, the paramount importance of which 



' The Descent of Man, pp. 120-21. 

 19 



