half-savage masses, during the earliest clan-period of mankind
and still more during the next village-community period, and the
immense influence which these early institutions have exercised
upon the subsequent development of mankind, down to the present
times, induced me to extend my researches to the later,
historical periods as well; especially, to study that most
interesting period--the free medieval city republics, of which
the universality and influence upon our modern civilization have
not yet been duly appreciated. And finally, I have tried to
indicate in brief the immense importance which the mutual-support
instincts, inherited by mankind from its extremely long
evolution, play even now in our modern society, which is supposed
to rest upon the principle: "every one for himself, and the State
for all," but which it never has succeeded, nor will succeed in
realizing.

It may be objected to this book that both animals and men are
represented in it under too favourable an aspect; that their
sociable qualities are insisted upon, while their anti-social and
self-asserting instincts are hardly touched upon. This was,
however, unavoidable. We have heard so much lately of the "harsh,
pitiless struggle for life," which was said to be carried on by
every animal against all other animals, every "savage" against
all other "savages," and every civilized man against all his
co-citizens--and these assertions have so much become an
article of faith--that it was necessary, first of all, to
oppose to them a wide series of facts showing animal and human
life under a quite different aspect. It was necessary to indicate
the overwhelming importance which sociable habits play in Nature
and in the progressive evolution of both the animal species and