Page:Philosophical Review Volume 8.djvu/439

421 parental care to its most developed manifestations in general social feeling. In a world of ceaseless competition, parental care was necessary to render possible the survival and subsequent ascendancy of the more intelligent types. In view of the fact that a million creatures perish for every one that survives, it is plain that the most trifling advantage may ensure the survival of its possessor." Under ordinary circumstances, the preservative feature will not be an advance in intelligence, for such an advance implies a greater intricacy of nerve organization, which cannot occur without an increasing period of immaturity" (Vol. I, p. 3). No doubt the creature of highest nervous type would be dominant if it once reached maturity, but the lengthened period of helplessness would be a fatal disadvantage in a world which swarms with dangers. And, if a more highly organized individual did chance to escape, its progeny, if inheriting the same higher development, would in general be less lucky. "But suppose that in the slow succession of ages a slight advance in nerve organization should happen to synchronize with a small tendency on the part of parents to guard their eggs or their offspring, the higher type might, and probably would, escape the dangers of its prolonged immaturity." Hence, Mr. Sutherland concludes, in the struggle for existence, an immense premium is placed upon parental care.

It is evident, however, that this argument simply proves that parental sympathy is necessary for the development of the higher nervous types. It does not prove that this sympathy originated as a direct result of the struggle for existence. The animal which receives the benefit of parental care will doubtless have an advantage, but the question surely is whether the sympathetic parent itself will have an advantage. When we are accounting for the genesis of sympathy, we have to explain the survival, not of the object sympathized with, but of the subject who sympathizes, and when we derive sympathy from the struggle for existence we have to prove that this quality is useful to its possessor. Natural selection, as Darwin insists, cannot develop qualities in the individual which are of no service to itself. Now the more care an animal lavishes upon its offspring, the more attention it diverts from its own self-preservation. The self-sacrificing parent will thus be placed at a disadvantage, and natural selection will tend to eliminate the unfortunate altruist. For this conclusion we have the authority of Darwin himself (Descent of Man, Ch. V). Hence, if the parent can devote attention to its young and yet survive, it is despite the struggle for life, and not in virtue of it. Since Mr. Sutherland derives general social feeling from parental affection, he cannot urge