408 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



out who menaced the communal life. If they were too 

 numerous the whole community collapsed, either from 

 internal troubles or in conflict with more coherent 

 groups. If these individuals were few, they were driven 

 away or destroyed by their fellows, and were unable to 

 sustain the struggle in isolation. Thus it is the first 

 condition of all social life that no member shall endanger 

 the life of another. Hence all primitive men that had 

 murderous thoughts against their fellows would be 

 gradually weed^ out. 



The more coherent the communities, the more com- 

 plex the social instincts would become by means of 

 selection. The property of one's fellows would come 

 to be respected as well as their persons, and it was 

 not long before thieves were put to death. In a 

 word, all variations with lower social instincts came 

 to be destroyed, and only the most social variations 

 preserved. 



Thus from the start those individuals were selected 

 whose instincts were the most useful to the community. 

 When one of these individuals committed murder, he 

 acted contrary to his instinct, and an action contrary to 

 one's instinct is always, even in the animals, accompanied 

 by a feeling of pain, as we saw in the second chapter. 

 This feeling may have been the beginning of conscience. 

 The closer the co-operation in the community, the more 

 confidently were those preserved who did not disturb 

 the communal life — those, in other words, whose feeling 

 of discomfort was strongest if they ever acted against 

 the social instinct. In this way an increasing number of 



