n to the little baby is attended by a
strong emotion, called, for want of a better name, the "tender
emotion".

The strongest stimulus to arouse this instinct is the little, helpless
baby. The older child has to take second place with the mother, so
soon as there is a little baby there. After a child is weaned, and
after he is able to get about and do for himself to quite an extent,
he has less hold on the maternal instinct. The love and care that he
may still get is less a simple matter of instinct.

Though the little baby is the strongest stimulus to this instinct,
older children and even adults, provided they are like the baby in
being winsome and helpless in some way, may arouse the same sort of
feeling and behavior, tender feeling and protective behavior. A pet
animal may arouse the same tendency, and a "darling little calf" or a
"cute little baby elephant" may awaken something of the same thrill.
Even a young plant may be tended with a devotion akin to the maternal.
The fact seems to be here, as with other instincts, that objects
similar to the natural stimulus may arouse the same impulse and
emotion. Love between the sexes is often a compound of sex attraction
and the mothering instinct; and it is interesting to watch a happily
mated couple each mothering the other.

But is it allowable to speak of this instinct as present in the male
human being, or in any one not a mother? Undoubtedly the woman who has
recently become a mother is most susceptible to the appeal of a little
baby, but the response of other women and of girls to a baby is so
spontaneous that we cannot but call it instinctive. Men and boys have
no special desire to feed or cuddle a little baby, and are quite
contented to leave the care of the baby mostly to the "women folks".
But they do object strongly to seeing the {150} baby hurt or
ill-treated, and will respond by protecting it. Also, they like to
watch the baby act, and like to help it along in its efforts to do
things. This may be instinctive in the man; at least it reminds us of
the behavior of a mother cat or dog or horse, when she plays with her
young and stimulates them to action. When the mother cat brings a live
mouse for her half-grown kittens to practise on, she is acting
instinctively, and probably a man is obeying the same instinct when he
brings the baby a toy and derives pleasure from watching the baby's
attempts to use it.

The parental instinct would thus seem to lie at the