LITMIR.BIZ

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of mind and the nervous system.43

      We have seen that the nervous system not only regulates most of the existing functions of the body, but that it has indirectly influenced the development of various bodily structures and certain mental qualities, and that these powers of mind depend on the development of the brain.

      By our guides in this matter, we are assured that the most important difference observed between man and the lower animals is the conscience; hence, if we would understand how it has been possible for man to rise to his present position, we must know something of the processes involved in the development of the social instincts, through which have originated conscience and a desire for the welfare of others outside of self. The importance of these instincts in the development of conscience is thus set forth by Mr. Darwin:

      Any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual faculties had become as well, or nearly as well, developed as in man.

      Sympathy, we are told, is the foundation-stone of the social instincts. From facts which are everywhere presented among the forms of life below man, it is evident that sympathy was developed at an early stage of animal life. It is doubtless strongly manifested in our ape-like progenitors, and it was probably this instinct which subsequently led to a community of interest and the coherence of the tribe.

      In a consideration, therefore, of this question of sex development and the origin of the progressive principle, if, as we are assured, sympathy constitutes the foundation-stone of the social instincts, and if it is to these instincts that we are to look for the origin of the moral sense, or conscience—a faculty which constitutes the fundamental difference between the human species and the lower orders of life—the question naturally arises: In which of the two diverging lines of sexual demarcation has arisen sympathy, or an interest in the well-being of others? For an answer to our question we must look carefully to the facts connected with the development of the sexes within one of which have been acquired characters tending toward the welfare of society, or of individuals outside of self; within the other, characters looking only toward selfish gratification. Within the former, the maternal instinct predominates; within the latter, passion.

      Mr. Darwin admits that “parental and filial affection lies at the base of the social instincts,” and gives as his opinion that this quality is the result of Natural Selection—that those individuals which bestowed upon their offspring the greatest care and attention, would survive and multiply at the expense of others in which this instinct was less developed. Therefore, in pursuing the inquiry of sex-function and sex-development, a question of considerable significance is at this point suggested: Within which parent is observed the greater tendency to bestow care and attention upon offspring?

      We are assured that “the animal family is especially maternal.” So soon as a female bird has laid her eggs, she is animated only by one desire; neither the promise of abundant food nor the fear of bullets is able to divert her purpose. Although the males among the more highly developed birds assist in rearing the family, amongst various species it is only the female which cares for the young. The male duck has no interest in his progeny, neither has the male eider. Of the male turkeys Mr. Letourneau says that they

      do much worse: they often devour the eggs of their females, and thus oblige the latter to hide them. Female turkeys join each other with their young ones for greater security, and thus form troops of from sixty to eighty individuals, led by the mothers, and carefully avoiding the old males, who rush on the young ones and kill them by violent blows on the head with their beaks.44

      The males of various other species, jealous of the attentions of the mothers during the time that their efforts are directed toward the maintenance of their brood, often kill their young. Regarding the subject of paternal care, Mr. Letourneau observes: “It is important to notice that amongst birds, the fathers devoid of affection generally belong to the less intelligent, and are most often polygamous.”

      By observing the habits of cuckoos the fact has been ascertained that among them the maternal instinct is almost entirely lacking. Of the cuckoo it has been remarked that it is a “discontented, ill-conditioned, passionate, in short, decidedly unamiable bird.” Its note is typical of its habits and character.

      The same abruptness, insatiability, eagerness, the same rage, are noticeable in its whole conduct. The cuckoos are notoriously unsociable, even in migration individualistic. They jealously guard their territorial “preserves,” and verify in many ways the old myth that they are sparrow-hawks in disguise. The parasitic habit is consonant with their general character.

      The species consist predominantly of males. The preponderance is probably about five to one; though one observer makes it five times greater. In so male a species, it is not surprising to find degenerate maternal instincts.45

      Regarding spiders and the greater number of insects, we are told that the males entirely neglect their young; it is

      in the female that the care for offspring first awakens. And this is natural, for the eggs have been formed in her body; she has laid them, and has been conscious of them; they form, in a way, an integral part of her individuality. … With insects maternal forethought sometimes amounts to a sort of divining prescience which the doctrine of evolution alone can explain.46

      Among the males of mammals below man the love of offspring seems to be almost entirely wanting.

      We must here remark, that whatever the form of sexual association among mammals, the male has always much less affection for his young than the female. Even in monogamous species, when the male keeps with the female, he does so more as chief than as father. At times he is inclined to commit infanticide and to destroy the offspring, which, by absorbing all the attention of his female, thwart his amours. Thus, among the large felines, the mother is obliged to hide her young ones from the male during the first few days after birth, to prevent his devouring them.47

      The fact is obvious that among the orders of life below man but little paternal affection has been developed, and with a more extended knowledge of the past history of the human race comes the assurance that under earlier conditions of society, and in fact, until a comparatively recent time, little notice was taken of the paternal relation—that kinship and all the rights of succession were reckoned through the mother. In other words, motherhood was the primary bond by which society was bound together.

      Although under higher conditions of civilized life, males have at length come to manifest much interest in the well-being of their offspring, yet that paternal affection is not a primary instinct is shown by the fact that such interest, even at the present time, extends only to those individuals born in wedlock. Men are solicitous only for the welfare of those who are to succeed to their names and fortunes; hence, although in later times the paternal instinct has been considerably re-enforced, it is plain that the interest of fathers for their offspring has in the past been largely the result of custom, association, pride, desire for self-perpetuation or duplication, or some other form of self-aggrandizement.

      Mr. Darwin says: “The feeling of pleasure from society is probably an extension of the parental or filial affections, since the social instinct seems to be developed by the young remaining for a long time with their parents.”48 Although Mr. Darwin does not admit it, from his reasoning it is plain that the maternal instinct is the root whence sympathy has sprung, and that it is the source whence the cohesive quality in the tribe originated. Regarding the importance of association or combination in early groups Mr. Darwin remarks:

      When two tribes of primeval man, living in the same country, came into competition, if (other circumstances being equal) the one tribe included a great number of courageous, sympathetic, and faithful members, who were always ready to warn each other of danger, to aid and defend each other, this tribe would succeed better and conquer the other. … Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected. A tribe rich in the above qualities would spread and be victorious over other tribes. … Thus the social and moral qualities would tend slowly to advance and be diffused throughout the world.49

      Since, then, it has been proved by scientists that without an association of interests

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