MORAL SENSE. 105 



We can perceive that an instinctive impulse, if it be in any 

 way more beneficial to a species than some other* or opposed 

 instinct, would be rendered the more potent of the two through 

 natural selection; for the Individuals which had it most strongly 

 developed would survive in larger numbers. Whether this is the 

 case with the migratory in comparison with the maternal instinct, 

 may be doubted. The great persistence, or steady action of the 

 former at certain seasons of the year during the whole day, may 

 give it for a time paramount force. 



Man a social animal. — Every one will admit that man is a 

 social being. We see this in his dislike of solitude, and in his 

 wish for society beyond that of his own family. Solitary con- 

 finement is one of the severest punishments which can be inflicted. 

 Some authors suppose that man primevally lived in single fami- 

 lies; but at the present day, though single families, or only two 

 or three together, roam the solitudes of some savage lands, they 

 always, as far as I can discover, hold friendly relations with 

 other families inhabiting the same district. Such families oc- 

 casionally meet in council, and unite for their common de- 

 fense. It is no argument against savage man being a social ani- 

 mal, that the tribes inhabiting adjacent districts are almost al- 

 ways at war with each other; for the social instincts never ex- 

 tend to all the indfviduals of the same species. Judging from the 

 analogy of the majority of the Quadrumana, it is probable that 

 the early ape-like progenitors of man were likewise social; but 

 this is not of much importance for us. Although man, as he 

 now exists, has few special instincts, having lost any which his 

 early progenitors may have possessed, this is no reason why he 

 should not have retained from an extremely remote period some 

 degree of instinctive love and sympathy for his fellows. We 

 are indeed all conscious that we do possess such sympathetic 

 feelings;^ but our consciousness does not tell us whether they 

 are instinctive, having originated long ago in the same manner 

 as with the lower animals, or whether they have been acquired 

 by each of us during our early years. As man is a social animal, 



pp. 108, 118. For some additional evidence, although this Is not wanted, 

 see Leroy, 'Lettres Phil.' 1802, p. 217. For Swifts, Goulds, 'Introduction 

 to the Birds of Great Britain,' 1823, p. 5. Similar cases have been ob- 

 served in Canada by Mr. Adams; 'Pop. Science Review,' July, 1873, 

 p. 283. 



23 Hume remarks ('An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,' 

 edit, of 1751, p. 132). "There seems a necessity for confessing that the 

 "happiness and misery of others are not spectacles altogether indiffer- 

 "ent to us, but that the view of the former . . communicates a secret 

 "joy; the appearance of the latter . . . throws a. melancholy damp 

 "over the imagination." 



