The Descent of Man

Bain's Mental and Moral Science,' 1868, pp. 244,
and 275-282. Mr. Bain states, that, "sympathy is,
indirectly, a source of pleasure to the sympathiser";
and he accounts for this through reciprocity.
He remarks that "the person benefited,
or others in his stead, may make up, by sympathy
and good offices returned, for all the sacrifice."
But if, as appears to be the case, sympathy
is strictly an instinct, its exercise would
give direct pleasure, in the same manner as the
exercise, as before remarked, of almost every
other instinct.) But I cannot see how this view
explains the fact that sympathy is excited, in an
immeasurably stronger degree, by a beloved,
than by an indifferent person. The mere sight of
suffering, independently of love, would suffice
to call up in us vivid recollections and associations.
The explanation may lie in the fact that,
with all animals, sympathy is directed solely
towards the members of the same community,
and therefore towards known, and more or less
beloved members, but not to all the individuals