could be abolished, society would soon disappear altogether. In human beings the parental instinct is conjoined with the reproductive, and so closely are they correlated, that "in the individuals in whom one of them is strong the other will also be strong in the majority of cases, and vice versa."[1] The combination of these instincts results in the institution of the family; and there can be no doubt that the stability and integrity of the family is the sine qua non of the health of society. From these instincts directly spring some of the highest moral virtues. Self-sacrifice, along with a host of attendant virtues, is an immediate product of the instinct of parenthood; and "it is probable that these two instincts in conjunction, the reproductive and parental instincts, directly impel human beings to a greater sum of activity, effort, and toil, than all the other motives of human action taken together."[2] These instincts are specially the foundation of the Home.
The instincts of pugnacity and gregariousness also have an important social reference; and, different as they seem at first sight, they yet contribute in almost equal measure to the foundation of communities. Man is naturally the most gregarious of animals. "To be alone is one of the greatest of evils for him. Solitary confinement is by many regarded as a mode of torture too cruel and unnatural for civilised countries to adopt. To one long pent up on a desert island the sight of a human footprint or a human form in the distance would be the most tumultuously exciting of experiences."[3] To the
- ↑ M'Dougall: Social Psychology, p. 267.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 269.
- ↑ James: Principles of Psychology.
