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Show 84 THE DESCENT OF MAN. PART I. preservation. Nevertheless the migratory instinct is so powerful that late in the autumn swallows and housemartins frequently desert their tender young, leaving them to perish miserably in their nests.18 vVe can perceive that an insbnctive impulse, if it be in any way more beneficial to a species than some other or opposed instinct, would be rendered the more potent of the two through natural selection; for the individuals which had it most strongly developed would survive in larger numbers. Whether this is the case with the migratory in comparison with the maternal instinct, may well be doubted. The great persistence or stearly action of the former at certain seasons of the year during the whole day, may give it for a time paramount force. Man a social animal.-Most persons admit that man is a social being. vVe see this in his dislike of solitude,. and in his wish for society beyond that of his own family. Solitary confinement is one of the severest punishments which can be inflicted. Some authors suppose that man primevally lived in single families; but at the present day, though single families, or only two or three together, roam the solitudes of some savage lands, they are always, as far as I can discover, friendly with other families inhabiting the same district. Such families occasionally meet in council, and they unite 18 This fact, the Rev. L. Jenyns states (sec his edition of' White's Nat. Hist. of Selborne,' 1853, p. 204) was fh·st recorded by the illustrious J cnner, in 'Phil. Transact .' 1824:, and bas since been confirmed by several observers, especially by 1\fr. Blackwall. This latter car eful observer examined, late in the autumn, during two years, thirty-six nests; he found tho.t twelve contained yotmg dead birds, five contained eggs on the !JOint of being hatched, and three eggs not nearly hatched. 1\fany birds not yet old enough for a prolonged flight are likewi sr! deserted and left behind. See Blackwall, 'Hescarchcs in Zoology,' 1834, pp. 108, 118. For some additional evidence, although this is not wanted, see Leroy,' Lettl·cs Phil.' 1802, p. 217. C HAP. III. MORAL SENSE. 85 for their common defence. It is no argument against savage man being a social animal, that the tribes inhabiting adjacent districts are almost always at war with each other ; for the social instincts never extend to all the individuals of the same species. Judging from the analogy of the greater number of the Quadr ·umana, it is probable that the early ape-like progenitors of man were likewise social; but this is not of much importance for us. Although man, as he now exists, has few special instincts, having lost any which his early progenitors may have possessed, this is no reason why l1e should not have retained from an extremely remote period some degree of instinctive love and sympathy for his fellows. We are indeed all conscious that we do possess such sympathetic feelings ; 19 but our consciousness does not tell us whether they are instinctive, having originated long ago in the same manner as with the lower animals, or whether they have been acquired by each of us during our early years. As man is a social animal, it is also probable that he would inherit a tendency to be faithful to his comrades, for this quality is common to most social animals. He would in like manner possess some capacity for selfcommand, and perhaps of obedience to the leader of the community. He would from an inherited t endency still be willing to defend, in concert with others, his fellow-men, and would be ready to aid them in any \\'ay which did not too greatly interfere with his own welfare or his own strong desires. The social animals which stand at the bottom of the 19 Hume remarks(' An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,' ·edit. of 1751, p. 132), "there seems a necessity for confessing that the ".happiness and misery of others are not spectacles altogethe1· in" different to us, but that the view of the former ... cpmmunicates a _., secret joy; the appearance of the latter . . . throws a melancholy " damp over tbe imagination." |
