MAN'S DEVOTION 115 



front, covered only by soft tissues? It is certain 

 then, that: gregariousness did not begin to have 

 survival value for man until he had learned to arm 

 himself artificially. 



Consideration of answers to the questions asked 

 above may now be resumed. To perform the actions 

 under discussion, a human being or human beings 

 must feel some sympathetic interest in the dangers 

 and sufferings of the females. 1 Now what sort of 

 human beings would answer to these requirements, 

 and in what relation would they stand to the preg- 

 nant females? Would adult females, standing in 

 the relation of friendship answer? Friendship can 

 only arise in the associated (social) state, among 

 creatures having at least occasional brief periods of 

 peace and leisure to give opportunities for the ameni- 

 ties and joys, the experiences of similarity or com- 

 plementariness of tastes, activities, etc., in which 

 the sentiment of friendship has its roots. It seems, 

 therefore, self-evident that such a thing as a long- 

 enduring, steadfast, self-sacrificing friendship, with- 



1 It is exceedingly improbable that the males had any notion 

 of the reproductive results of cohabitation until long after per- 

 manent sex unions had become quite common. Nothing in the 

 act of reproducing suggests its results to either sex. Even the 

 female has no coherent chain of feelings to teach this mysterious 

 connection; and from the consciousness of the male the knowl- 

 edge is still more remote. 



The reader must be warned against assuming that the con- 

 nection between the gratification of the attraction between the 

 sexes and the birth of offspring, as now generally understood by 

 adult civilized human beings, was known or even suspected 

 until long after permanent unions had become very common 

 in human societies. 



