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Show 78 THE DESCENT OF MAN. PART I. ture instantly jumped away, but after the pretended beating was over, it was really pathetic to see how perseveringly he tried to lick his mistress' sface and comfort her. Brehm 13 states that when a baboon in confinement was pursued to be punished, the others tried to protect him. It must have been sympathy in the cases above given which led the baboons and Cercopitheci to defend their young comrades from the dogs and the eagle. I will give only one other instance of sympathetic and heroic conduct in a little American monkey. Several years ago a keeper at the Zoological Gardens, showed me some deep and scarcely healed wounds on the nape of his neck, inflicted on him whilst kneeling on the floor by a fierce baboon. The little American monkey, who was a warm friend of this keeper, lived in the same large compartment, and was dreadfully afraid of the great baboon. Nevertheless, as soon as he saw his f1·iend the keeper in peril, he rushed to the rescue, and by screams and bites so distracted the baboon that the man was able to escape, after running great risk, as the surgeon who attended him thought, of his life. Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit otber qualities which in us would be called moral; and I agree with Agassiz 14 that dogs possess something very like a conscience. They certainly possess some power of selfcommand, and this does not appear to be wholly the result of fear. As Braubach 15 remarks, a dog will refrain from stealing food in the absence of his master. Dog~ have long .been accepted as the very type of fid~hty and obedience. All animals living in a body which defend each other or attack their enemies 13 ' Thierleben,' B. i. s. 85. 14 'De l'Espece et de la Class.' 1869, p. 97. 15 'Der Da1·win'schen .Axt-Lehre,' 1869, s. 54. Crr.A.P. III. MORAL SENSE. 7~ in concert must be in some degree faithful to each other · and those that follow a leader must be in some 'degree obedient. . When th~ baboons in Aby~sinia 16 plunder a garden, they silent!~ follow their leader ; and if an imprudent young ammal makes. a noise, he receives a slap from the others to teach him silence and obedience; but as soon as they are sure that there is no danger, all show their joy by much clamour. With respect to the impulse whic~ leads certa~n animals to associate together, and to aid each other m many ways, we may infer that in. most. cases they are impelled by the same sense of sat.Isfactwn o~· p~eas~re which they experience in performm~ ot?er I~stmctr:e actions; or by the same sense of dissatisfactiOn, as m other cases of prevented instinctive actions. vVe see this in innumerable instances, and it is illustrated in a striking manner by the acquired instincts of our domesticated animals; thus a young shepherd-dog delights in driving and running round a flock of s~eep, but not in worrying them ; a young foxhound delights in hunting a fox, whilst some other kinds of dogs as I have witnessed, utterly disregard foxes. \Vhat a strong feeling of inward satisfaction must impel a bird, so full of activity, to brood day after day over her ~ggs. Migratory birds are miserable if prev~nted from ~:mgrating, and perhaps they enjoy startmg. on their long flight. Some few instincts are determmed solely by painful feelings, as by fear, which .leads ~o ~elf-pre~ervation, or is specially directed agamst certam e~emies. No one, I presume, can analyse the sens.ati?ns of pleasure or pain. In many cases, however, It 1s probable that instincts are persistently followed from the 1a B1elun, 'Thierleben,' B. i. s. 76. |