410 PSTCHOLOQY. 



obnoxious ones may often better the chances of those that 

 remain. And killing off a neighboring tribe from whom 

 no good thing comes, but only competition, may materially 

 better the lot of the whole tribe. Hence the gory cradle, 

 the helium omnium contra omnes, in which our race was 

 reared ; hence the fickleness of human ties, the ease with 

 which the foe of yesterday becomes the ally of to-day, the 

 friend of to-day the enemy of to-morrow ; hence the fact that 

 we, the lineal representatives of the successful enactors of 

 one scene of slaughter after another, must, whatever more 

 pacific virtues we may also possess, still carry about with 

 us, ready at any moment to burst into flame, the smoulder- 

 ing and sinister traits of character by means of which they 

 lived through so many massacres, harming others, but 

 themselves unharmed. 



Sympathy is an emotion as to whose instinctiveness psy- 

 chologists have held hot debate, some of them contending 

 that it is no primitive endowment, but, originally at least, 

 the result of a rapid calculation of the good consequences 

 to ourselves of the sympathetic act. Such a calculation, 

 at first conscious, would grow more unconscious as it be- 

 came more habitual, and at last, tradition and association 

 aiding, might prompt to actions which could not be distin- 

 guished from immediate impulses. It is hardly needful to 

 argue against the falsity of this view. Some forms of sym- 

 pathy, that of mother with child, for example, are surely 

 primitive, and not intelligent forecasts of board and lodg- 

 ing and other support to be reaped in old age. Danger to 

 the child blindly and instantaneously stimulates the mother 

 to actions of alarm or defence. Menace or harm to the 

 adult beloved or friend excites us in a corresponding 

 way, often against all the dictates of prudence. It is true 

 that sympathy does not necessarily follow from the mere 

 fact of gregariousness. Cattle do not help a wounded com- 

 rade ; on the contrary, they are more likely to dispatch 

 him. But a dog will lick another sick dog, and even bring 

 him food ; and the sympathy of monkeys is proved by 

 many observations to be strong. In man, then, we may lay 

 it down that the sight of suffering or danger to others is 

 a direct exciter of interest, and an immediate stimulus, if 



