[11]
4. First of all, Nature has endowed every species1
of living creature with the instinct of self-preservation, of avoiding what seems likely to cause injury
to life or limb, and of procuring and providing everything needful for life—food, shelter, and the like.
A common property of all creatures is also the
reproductive instinct (the purpose of which is the
propagation of the species) and also a certain amount2
of concern for their offspring. But the most marked
difference between man and beast is this: the beast,
just as far as it is moved by the senses and with
very little perception of past or future, adapts itself
to that alone which is present at the moment; while
man—because he is endowed with reason, by which
he comprehends the chain of consequences, perceives
the causes of things, understands the relation of
cause to effect and of effect to cause, draws analogies,
and connects and associates the present and the
future—easily surveys the course of his whole life
and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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