THE DESCENT OB ORIGIN OF MAN 153 



mals. Nevertheless we can, I think, see with some degree 

 of clearness the reason of this difference. 



Man, from the activity of his mental faculties, cannot 

 avoid reflection; past impressions and images are inces- 

 santly and clearly passing through his mind. Now with 

 those animals which live permanently in a body, the social 

 instincts are ever present . and persistent. Such animals are 

 always ready to utter the danger-signal, to defend the com- 

 munity, and to give aid to their fellows in accordance with 

 their habits ; they feel at all times, without the stimulus of 

 any special passion or desire, some degree of love and sym- 

 pathy for them ; they are unhappy if long separated from 

 them, and always happy to be again in their company. So 

 it is with ourselves. Even when we are quite alone, how 

 often do we think with pleasure or pain of what others think 

 of us — of their imagined approbation or disapprobation ; and 

 this all follows from sympathy, a fundamental element of 

 the social instincts. A man who possessed no trace of such 

 instincts would be an unnatural monster. On the other 

 hand, the desire to satisfy hunger, or any passion such as 

 vengeance, is in its nature temporary, and can for a time 

 be fully satisfied. ISTor is it easy, perhaps hardly possible, 

 to call up with complete vividness the feeling, for instance, 

 of hunger; nor indeed, as has often been remarked, of any 

 suffering. The instinct of self-preservation is not felt except 

 in the presence of danger; and many a coward has thought 

 himself brave until he has met his enemy face to face. The 

 wish for another man's property is perhaps as persistent a 

 desire as any that can be named ; but even in this case the 

 satisfaction of actual possession is generally a weaker feeling 

 than the desire: many a thief, if not a habitual one, after 

 success has wondered why he stole some article." 



"' Enmity or hatred seems also to be a highly persistent feeling, perhaps 

 more so than any other that can he named. Envy is defined as hatred of 

 another for some excellence or success; and Bacon insists (Essay Lx.), "Of all 

 other affections envy is the most importune and continual. " Dogs are very apt 

 to hate both strange men and strange dogs, especially if they live near at hand, 

 but do not belong to the same family, tribe, or clan ; this feeling would thus 



