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restore me to my family and to my divine parents. I shall cherish a divine gratitude for this favour; a gratitude eternal as the life of the gods."*

CHAPTER V.

DISORDERED ACTION OF THE PROPENSITIES.

(IV.) IMITATIVENESS, OR THE PROPENSITY TO IMI

TATION.

§ 187. Evidence of the existence of this principle.

WE next proceed to the consideration of Imitativeness, or the Propensity to Imitation. The proof that there is in man a principle of Imitation, which impels him to do as others do, is so abundant as probably to leave no reasonable doubt upon the candid mind. We find evidence of it, not only in children, whose principal business it seems to be to repeat whatever they see others do, but also in men, who exhibit, as a general thing, a strong tendency to do as their fathers have done before them. This is an important principle of our nature; much more so than, at first sight, would seem to be the case. If we examine it in its various influences and relations, it will be found one of the great supports of society; and if not directly, yet indirectly, a source of knowledge, happiness, and power.

* Conolly's Inquiry, Lond. ed., p. 357.

This important principle, like all the other propensities, is liable to occasional disorders. In some individuals it is found to exhibit, as compared with its ordinary operation and character, a decidedly irregular or diseased action.-Cabanis makes mention of an individual, in whom this tendency existed in a very high degree; so much so, that, when he was hindered from yielding to its impulses, "he experienced insupportable suffering."-Pinel, as he is quoted by Dr. Gall, speaks of an idiot woman, "who had an irresistible propensity to imitate all that she saw done in her presence. She repeats, instinctively, all she hears, and imitates the gestures and actions of others with the greatest fidelity, and without troubling herself with any regard to propriety."*

§ 188. Explanations in relation to sympathetic Im

itation.

There is a peculiar form of disordered Imitation, generally known in philosophical writers under the denomination of SYMPATHETIC IMITATION, which is particularly worthy of attention. Of this we shall now proceed to give some account..

It is implied, in the first place, in all cases of Sympathetic Imitation, that there is more than one person concerned in them; and it exists in general, in the highest degree, when the number of persons is considerable. Some one or more of these individuals is strongly agitated by some internal emotion, desire, or passion; and this inward agitation is ex* Gall's Works, Am. ed., vol. i., p. 320.

pressed by the countenance, gestures, or other external signs.

In the second place, there is a communication of such agitation of the mind to others; they experience, as is generally the case when we witness the external signs of strong feeling, similar emotions, desires, and passions. And these new exercises of soul are expressed on the part of the sympathetic person by similar outward signs. In a single word, when we are under the influence of this form of imitation, we both act and feel as others. There is an imitation of the feelings as well as of action, a sympathy of the mind as well as of the body.

§ 189. Familiar instances of Sympathetic Imitation.

Abundance of instances (many of them frequent and familiar) show the existence of SYMPATHETIC IMITATION; in other words, that there is in human feelings, and in the signs of those feelings, a power of contagious communication, by which they often spread themselves rapidly from one to another.

"In general, it may be remarked" (says Mr. Stewart), "that whenever we see, in the countenance of another individual, any sudden change of features; more especially such a change as is expressive of any particular passion or emotion, our own countenance has a tendency to assimilate itself to his. Every man is sensible of this when he looks at a person under the influence of laughter or in a deep melancholy. Something, too, of the same kind takes place in that spasm of the muscles of the jaw which we experience in yawning; an action which DD

is well known to be frequently excited by the contagious power of example. Even when we conceive, in solitude, the external expression of any passion, the effect of the conception is visible in our own appearance. This is a fact of which every person must be conscious, who attends, in his own case, to the result of the experiment; and it is a circumstance which has been often remarked with respect to historical painters, when in the act of transferring to the canvass the glowing pictures of a creative imagination."*

To these statements, illustrative of sympathetic imitation, may be added the fact that, if there are a number of children together, and one of them suddenly gives way to tears and sobs, it is generally the case that all the rest are more or less affected in the same manner. Another case, illustrative of the same natural principle, is that of a mob, when they gaze at a dancer on the slack-rope. They seem not only to be filled with the same anxiety which we may suppose to exist in the rope-dancer himself, but they naturally writhe, and twist, and balance their own bodies as they see him do. It has also been frequently remarked, that, when we see a stroke aimed and just ready to fall upon the leg or arm of another person, we naturally shrink, and slightly draw back our own leg or arm, with a sort of prophetic or anticipative imitation of the person on whom the blow is about to be inflicted. Hysterical paroxysms are said to have been sometimes produced at witnessing the exhibition of the pathetic parts * Stewart's Elements, vol. iii., chap. ii.

of a drama.

And even the convulsions of epilepsy have been excited by the mere sight of a person afflicted with them.

§ 190. Of Sympathetic Imitation in large multitudes.

It has been often noticed, that the power of sympathetic imitation has been rendered intense, nearly in proportion to the numbers assembled together.In a large army, if the voice of triumph and joy be raised in a single column, it immediately extends through the whole. On the other hand, if a single column be struck with panic, and exhibit external signs of terror by flight or otherwise, the whole army is likely to become rapidly infected. The tremendous power of the mobs, which are often collected in large cities, may be explained in part on the same principle. The dark cloud that is standing upon the brow of one, is soon seen to gather in darkness on the brow of his neighbour; and thus to propagate itself rapidly in every direction, till one universal gloom of vengeance settles broadly and blackly upon the moving sea of the multitude.

Similar results are sometimes witnessed in large deliberative assemblies. The art of the orator introduces a common feeling, which glows simultaneously in their bosoms. Soon some one, either sustained by weaker nerves or under the influence of stronger internal impulses, gives signs of bodily agitation. Those who sit nearest will probably next imbibe the contagion, which spreads and increases until the whole assembly is in a tumult.

The

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