ig6 PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



of the mother's devotion to her child? Can it be 

 called motive at all ? May it not be described as 

 purely instinctive ? Up to the time of birth, the child 

 is within the mother's body. Her devotion to it 

 during that period can hardly be distinguished from 

 self-devotion. Then, when the child's internality 

 changes to externality, the devotion to it is a con- 

 tinuation of the former feelings, therefore hard 

 to distinguish from instinct. It must necessarily 

 grade very low by the criterion of motive. How 

 was it with the devotion of brute-man when he pro- 

 vided for the necessities of his female mate ? It 

 cannot be denied that originally male and female 

 were attracted to each other by reproductive instinct. 

 But, as has been illustrated in the foregoing chapters, 

 there grew up, during the long months of comrade- 

 ship, from intimate acquaintance, laboring, rejoicing, 

 and suffering together, a fellow feeling unavoidable 

 under such conditions between natures susceptible 

 to it and closely akin. The high development of 

 this trait in later times is evidence that the 

 susceptibility to it existed from the first. Then 

 when he brought food to the woman in concealment 

 who can say that fellow feeling was not the most 

 powerful among the complex motives of brute-man ? 

 If it be asserted that the desire to indulge the 

 reproductive instinct was the sole motive, the an- 

 swer is, that this could not be so, because, at that 

 period, females will not submit to it. Man's ances- 

 tors, during the era here referred to, were nothing 



