84 INSTINCTS 



days of classical brilliancy, when more than half 

 the population of Athens and Rome lived in 

 slavery, society could hardly have existed if the 

 authority of the master had not been tempered by 

 a humanity which prompted frequent emancipa- 

 tion. Kindness shows itself in feelings of pity. It is 

 the pride of our own times that philanthropic 

 sympathy should have prompted us, not merely 

 to a liberal dispensation of charity amongst the 

 poor and afflicted, but to self-sacrificing legislation 

 on their behalf. 



Some emotions which are generally attributed 

 to the individualistic or social instincts may, it 

 appears, be more appropriately assigned to im- 

 pulses of cruelty or kindness. Hate, revengeful- 

 ness and jealousy are concerned with injury to 

 others, not with profit to ourselves. And friendly 

 affection, generosity, mercy, and gratitude arise 

 rather from the springs of kindness than from any 

 promptings which are connected with our depend- 

 ance upon, others. 



ESTHETIC IMPULSES. In these we can trace, 

 from very humble origins, the genesis of the 

 artistic feelings and creativeness which in the 

 opinion of some mark the highest flight of human 

 accomplishment. The instinct of self-adornment is 

 probably the germ of our sense of the beautiful. 

 We see the fruits of its sub-conscious action in the 

 brilliant colours of birds and insects. Amongst 

 savage humanity it is a universal passion, leading 

 to the tattooing of the body, and to the most 

 absurd distortions of the ears, lips, and nostrils 

 by the insertion of ornaments into the flesh. It, 

 and not a desire for the useful, was, in all pro- 

 bability, the origin of clothes, which, as a matter 

 of fact, are hardly required for warmth over a 

 great part of the inhabited world. And in the 



