342 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



limitations of self-interest as a practical guide, so are the 

 limitations of interest in others. The unity of the species, 

 of society within the species, and of many closer organ- 

 isations, of which the family is the chief, within society 

 imply a varying measure of interest benevolent or 

 malevolent in others. Confining ourselves to benevolence 

 a serious restriction in the world as we know it we 

 might repeat all that we have said of the direction of con- 

 duct by and towards the interest of Self, substituting for 

 self another or others. Action may be guided by the re- 

 quirements of another personality as well as our own, and 

 is so in the case of all actions of affection, benevolence, and 

 social duty other than those which spring from the impulse 

 of the moment. The relatively permanent happiness as 

 distinguished from the temporary needs or pleasure of 

 another is the end of sympathetic or social action at this 

 stage of intelligence. 



This development of "altruism" is an elaboration of 

 impulses which are already well developed among the 

 higher animals. In one sense indeed many birds and mam- 

 mals recognise the personality of others in a very thorough- 

 going manner, since they give undoubted signsof permanent 

 and deep-seated attachment to individuals. This does not 

 necessarily imply, however, that they conceive the in- 

 dividual as a personality in the sense explained above in 

 dealing with the self. It means that the sight of the 

 beloved mate or child or master rejoices them, that absence 

 of the loved one depresses them, and stimulates them to 

 find him. If we were to look for a conception of person- 

 ality as something that persists and develops, we should 

 look for it first, perhaps, in the training of the young. 

 Such training undoubtedly appears among the more intel- 

 ligent birds and mammals, but it would seem to be limited 

 to three methods. There is first, punishment, the slap 

 which a mother ape or even a cat gives to the young one 

 which transgresses. This, if not merely impulsive, is 

 sufficiently explained by the desire of the mother to check 

 the young one in doing something immediately harmful. 

 There is secondly the method of stimulating the young to 

 exercise its faculties, as by bringing it its natural prey to 



