MORAL, SENSE. 97 



social animal, would gain in our supposed case, as it appears to 

 me, some feeling of right or wrong, or a conscience. For each in- 

 dividual would have an inward sense of possessing certain 

 stronger or more enduring instincts, and others less strong or 

 enduring; so that there would often be a struggle as to which 

 impulse should be followed; and satisfaction, dissatisfaction, or 

 even misery would be felt, as past impressions were compared 

 during their incessant passage through the mind. In this case 

 an Inward monitor would tell the animal that it would have been 

 better to have followed the one impulse rather than the other. 

 The one course ought to have been followed, and the other ought 

 not; the one would have been right and the other wrong; but to 

 these terms I shall recur. 



SodabilUy. — Animals of many kinds are social ; we find even 

 distinct species living together; for example, some American 

 monkeys; and united flocks of rooks, jackdaws, and starlings. 

 Man shows the same feeling in his strong love for the dog, which 

 the dog returns with interest. Every one must have noticed how 

 miserable horses, dogs, sheep, &c., are when separated from 

 their companions, and what strong mutual affection the two 

 former kinds, at least, show on their reunion. It is curious to 

 speculate on the feelings of a dog, who will rest peacefully for 

 hours in a room with his master or any of the family, without 

 the least notice being taken of him; but if left for a short time 

 by himself, barks or howls dismally. We will confine our atten- 

 tion to the higher social animals; and pass over insects, although 

 some of these are social, and aid one another in many Important 

 ways. The most common mutual service in the higher animals 

 is to warn one another of danger by means of the united senses 

 of all. Every sportsman knows, as Dr. Jaeger remarks,' how diffi- 

 cult it is to approach animals in a herd or troop. Wild horses 

 and cattle do not, I believe, make any danger-signal; but the 

 attitude of any one of them who first discovers an enemy, warns 

 the others. Rabbits stamp loudly on the ground with their hind- 

 feet as a signal: sheep and chamois do the same with their fore- 

 feet, uttering likewise a whistle. Many birds, and some mam- 

 mals, post sentinels, which in the case of seals are said* generally 

 to be the females. The leader of a troop of monkeys acts as the sen- 

 quired for the g'ood of the community. She goes so far as to say that 

 if the theory of ethics advocated in this chapter were ever generally 

 accepted, "I cannot but helieve that In the hour of their triumph would 

 "be sounded the knell of the virtue of mankind!" It is to be hoped 

 that the belief in the permanence of virtue on this earth is not held by 

 many persons on so weak a tenure. 



' 'Die Darwin'sche Theorie,' s. 101. 



8 Mr. R. Brown in 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc' 1868, p. 40*. 

 8 



