150 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



their gestures and language. Thus the social instincts, 

 which must have been acquired by man in a very rude 

 state, and probably even by his early ape- like progenitors, 

 still give the impulse to some of his best actions; but his 

 actions are in a higher degree determined by the expressed 

 wishes and judgment of his fellow-men, and, unfortunately, 

 very often by his own strong, selfish desires. But as love, 

 sympathy, and self-command become strengthened by habit, 

 and as the power of reasoning becomes clearer, so that man 

 can value justly the judgments of his fellows, he will feel 

 himself impelled, apart from any transitory pleasure or pain, 

 to certain lines of conduct. He might then declare — not 

 that any barbarian or uncultivated man could thus think 

 — I am the supreme judge of my own conduct, and, in the 

 words of Kant, I will not in my own person violate the dig- 

 nity of humanity. 



The more enduring Social Instincts conquer the less per- 

 sistent Instincts. — We have not, however, as yet considered 

 the main point on which, from our present point of view, the 

 whole question of the moral sense turns. "Why should a 

 man feel that he ought to obey one instinctive desire rather 

 than another? Why is he bitterly regretful, if he has 

 yielded to a strong sense of self-preservation, and has not 

 risked his life to save that of a fellow- creature ? or why 

 does he regret having stolen food from hunger? 



It is evident, in the first place, that with mankind the 

 instinctive impulses have different degrees of strength; a 

 savage will risk his own life to save that of a member of 

 the same community, but will be wholly indifferent about a 

 stranger; a young and timid mother, urged by the maternal 

 instinct, will, without a moment's hesitation, run the great- 

 est danger for her own infant, but not for a mere fellow- 

 creature., Nevertheless many a civilized man, or even boy, 

 who never before risked his life for another, filled with 

 courage and sympathy, has -disregarded, the instinct of self- 

 preservation, and plunged at once into a torrent to save a 



