ON ALTRUISM 197 



more than intelligent brutes, and no female brute 

 will permit the male to indulge at such a time (last 

 stages of pregnancy). This is a rule almost without 

 exception among wild brutes. That it is different 

 with some men now living in civilized communities 

 is no reason for believing that anything like it 

 occurred with brute-man. Indeed, that which 

 now sometimes does take place between men and 

 women is obviously the result of civilization. For, 

 during many generations, civilized women have ab- 

 jectly depended on the men who supported them 

 for a mere chance to live. Many such men have 

 sexually selected their consorts with sole reference 

 to abject submission in this matter of intercourse. 

 How could the well-attested greater rarity of this 

 kind of abuse among savage people be otherwise 

 accounted for? 



It appears, then, that fellow feeling and sym- 

 pathy were present, if not predominant, among the 

 complex motives which induced the devotion which 

 the human male-brute displayed when he pro- 

 vided for the needs of his female consort in conceal- 

 ment. This constitutes a true case of conscious 

 altruism, and ranks higher, by the criterion of motive, 

 than the mother's devotion to her child. As to 

 priority in time, and superiority in motive, does the 

 devotion of the lover to his bride outrank the 

 mother's love for her child? 



This conclusion, however, would not justify an 

 inference that the complex, refined, and evolved 



