general sense. And even in the animal creation we find the same
analogy existing between these feelings of sympathy and their
opposites which occur in the case of human beings. Every feeling of
attachment or sympathy existing between two individuals has a
counterpart in an opposite feeling of discontent when the object of
the love or attachment in question dies, falls sick, or runs away.
This feeling of discontent may assume the form of a sorrow ending in
lasting melancholy. In the case of apes and of certain parrots, it has
been noticed that the death of a mate has frequently led the survivor
to refuse nourishment, and die in turn from increasing grief and
depression. If, on the other hand, an animal discovers the cause of
the grief or loss which threatens it; if some enemy creature tries to
rob it of its mate or little ones, the mixed reactive feeling of rage
or anger is born in it, anger against the originator of its
discontent. Jealousy is only a definite special form of this anger
reaction.
A further development of the feeling of sympathy is that of duty.
Every feeling of love or sympathy urges those who feel it to do
certain things which will benefit the object of that love. A mother
will feed her young, bed them down comfortably, caress them; a father
will bring nourishment to the mother and her brood, and protect them
against foes. All these actions, not performed to benefit the creature
itself, but to help its beloved mate, represent exertion, trouble, the
overcoming of danger, and lead to a struggle between egoism and the
feeling of sympathy. Out of this struggle is born a third feeling,
that of responsibility and conscience. Thus the elements of the human
social feelings are already quite pronounced in the case of many
animals, including those of love as well as sex.
In the human animal, speaking in general, these feelings of sympathy
(love) and duty are strongly developed in the family connection; that
is, they are developed with special strength in those who are most
intimately united in sex life, in husband and wife and in children.
Consequently the feelings of sympathy or love which extend to larger
communal groups, such as more distant family connections, the tribe,
the community, those speaking the same tongue, the nation, are
relatively far weaker. Weakest of all, in all probability, is that
general human feeling which sees a brother in every other human being
and is conscious of the social duties owed him.
As regards man and wife, the relation of the actual sex instinct to