144 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



that the poor pinioned goose, described by Audubon, wMch 

 started on foot at the proper time for its journey of probably 

 more than a thousand miles, could have felt any joy in doing 

 so. Some instincts are determined solely by painful feelings, 

 as by fear, which leads to self-preservation, and is in some 

 cases directed toward special enemies. No one, I presume, 

 can analyze the sensations of pleasure or pain. In many 

 instances, however, it is probable that instincts are persist- 

 ently followed from the mere force of inheritance without 

 the stimulus of either pleasure or pain. A young pointer, 

 when it first scents game, apparently cannot help pointing. 

 A squirrel in a cage who pats the nuts which it cannot eat, 

 as if to bury them in the ground, can hardly be thought to 

 act thus either from pleasure or pain. Hence the common 

 assumption that men must be impelled to every action by 

 experiencing some pleasure or pain may be erroneous. Al- 

 though a habit may be blindly and implicitly followed, inde- 

 pendently of any pleasure or pain felt at the moment, yet if 

 it be forcibly and abruptly checked, a vague sense of dissatis- 

 faction is generally experienced. 



It has often been assumed that animals were in the first 

 place rendered social, and that they feel as a consequence 

 uncomfortable when separated from each other, and com- 

 fortable while together; but it is a more probable view that 

 these sensations were first developed, in order that those 

 animals which would profit by living in society should be 

 induced to live together, in the same manner as the sense 

 of hunger and the pleasure of eating were, no doubt, first 

 acquired m order to induce animals to eat. The feeling 

 of pleasure from society is probably an extension of the 

 parental or filial afiections, since the social instinct seems to 

 be developed by the young remaining for a long time with 

 their parents; and this extension may be attributed in part to 

 habit, but chiefly to natural selection. "VVjith those animals 

 which were benefited by living in close association, the indi- 

 viduals which took the greatest pleasure in society would 

 best escape various dangers; while those that cared least for 



