DEVOTION TO YOUNG IOI 



true test of the strength or quality of this instinct. It is 

 only in the few isolated cases of a voluntary sacrifice of 

 the parent, foreknowing the result, that it can be said the 

 act was due to instinct. In most such cases the parent 

 acts under a belief in its own ability to rescue the one in 

 danger, the parent not being wholly aware of its own peril. 

 I doubt if any animal except man ever deliberately offered 

 its own life as a ransom for that of another. Such instances 

 in human history are so rare as to immortalize the actor. 



To whatever extent the instinct may be found, it is much 

 stronger in the female than in the male, and it appears to 

 be stronger in domestic animals than in wild ones. To 

 what extent this is due to their contact with man, it is 

 difficult to say. The germ may be inherent, but it responds 

 to culture. 



The fact that the ape deserts its offspring under certain 

 conditions may be taken as an evidence of superior intelli- 

 gence affording it a higher appreciation of life and danger, 

 rather than a low, brutish impulse. It is the exercise of 

 superior judgment that causes man to act with more pru- 

 dence than other animals. It does not detract from his 

 nobleness. 



Within the family circle of the chimpanzee the father is 

 supreme ; but he does not degrade his royalty by being 

 a tyrant. Each member of the family seems to have cer- 

 tain rights that are not impugned by others. Possession 

 is the right of ownership. When one ape procures a cer- 

 tain article of food, the others do not try to dispossess him. 

 It is probably from this source that man inherits the idea 

 of private ownership. It is the same principle, amplified, 



