The Descent of Man

This great question has been discussed by many
writers (4. Mr. Bain gives a list ('Mental and
Moral Science,' 1868, pp. 543-725) of twenty-six
British authors who have written on this subject,
and whose names are familiar to every
reader; to these, Mr. Bain's own name, and those
of Mr. Lecky, Mr. Shadworth Hodgson, Sir J.
Lubbock, and others, might be added.) of consummate
ability; and my sole excuse for touching
on it, is the impossibility of here passing
it over; and because, as far as I know, no one
has approached it exclusively from the side of
natural history. The investigation possesses,
also, some independent interest, as an attempt
to see how far the study of the lower animals
throws light on one of the highest psychical
faculties of man.
The following proposition seems to me in a
high degree probable—namely, that any animal
whatever, endowed with well-marked social
instincts (5. Sir B. Brodie, after observing that