1890.] From Brute to Man. 349 
than any of the existing anthropoids. The orang and the gorilla 
are not sociable to any important extent. The chimpanzee is 
somewhat more so. The indications are that man’s ancestor was 
social in a higher sense than any of these, and employed the 
principle of mutual aid in a greater degree. It is scarcely neces- 
sary to speak of the advantage this would give in the struggle 
with animals. This advantage is patent. But there is one im- 
portant result of close social relations of the utmost importance 
in this connection,—that of education. All social animals edu- 
cate one another, either with or without design. Anything of 
importance learned by one member of the group is quickly im- 
parted to all members, and the more rapidly the better their 
methods of communication and the more complete their system 
of mutual aid. The lower monkeys teach their young, and 
indicate to one another anything of importance. There is no 
doubt that any new and useful weapon or method of assault or 
defence devised by any member of such a group would become 
quickly and permanently the property of all the members, and 
would constitute an important aid in mental development. A 
long succession of such ideas or inventions, gained by single 
bright members of evolving mankind, and taught to the others, 
must have played a highly useful part in the progress from ape-* 
hood to manhood. 
Socialism has been an important requisite of mental evolution 
throughout the animal kingdom. The highly social ants and 
bees have raised themselves mentally far beyond all the other 
insects. The social beavers show a remarkable mental ability as 
compared with the other rodents. It is, indeed, the communal 
rather than the simply social animals that have made these great 
steps of mental progress, those whose labor is devoted solely to 
the good of the community, and who work in concert for the 
advantage of each and all. To what extent man was communal 
in his developing stage it is impossible to say, but the general 
communism of barbarism may well have been an outgrowth of a 
primitive condition. There is reason to believe that the individ- 
ualism which now prevails is of late origin, and was not a char- 
acteristic of original man. 
