SOCIAL AND MENTAL QUALITIES 57 



nobly sacrifice their own lives in defence of their 

 young. I do not wish to dispel any belief that tends 

 to dignify or ennoble animals, for I am their special 

 friend and champion ; but truth demands that we 

 qualify this statement. It is quite true that many 

 have lost their lives in such acts of defence, but it 

 was not a voluntary sacrifice. It was not alone in 

 the defence of their young, but in many cases it was 

 in self-defence. In others, it was from a lack of 

 judgment. These apes have often been frightened 

 away from their young, and the latter captured while 

 the parents were fleeing from the scene. This may 

 have been the result of sagacity rather than of 

 depravity, but the parental instinct in both sexes, in 

 many instances, has failed to restrain them from 

 flight. If it be a foe that appears to come within 

 the measure of their own power, they will certainly 

 defend their young, and this sometimes results in the 

 loss of their own lives ; but if it be one of such 

 formidable aspect as to appear quite invincible, the 

 parents leave the young to their fate. This is true 

 of many other animals, including man. 



I have no desire to detract from the heroic quality 

 of this instinct, or to dim the glory it sheds upon 

 noble deeds ascribed to it ; but the fact that a parent 

 incurs the risk of its own life in the defence of 

 its young, is not a true test of its strength or 

 quality. 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 the 

 instinct. In most cases it is under the belief in its 



