TEE LAWS OF SOCIAL ATTRACTION 357 



is sexual affinity a peculiar bond that adds to the attractiveness of other 

 stocks and races or is it an index of defects imposed on individuals of 

 the same stock by shortcomings of their environment? Is an affinity 

 a person of the other sex just like ourselves in heredity, but with other 

 defects, or is this affinity a person of other stock or race enclosed and 

 harmonized by the influence of the same environment? The answer 

 to these questions is to be found not in biological studies of germ cells, 

 but in psychology and physiology. An affinity is a strong dominating 

 form of attachment which suppresses the ordinary thought processes 

 and puts in their place many unique emotions and illusions. We 

 immediately recognize the abnormality of the actions of two such people 

 and know that only the breaking of the spell will restore them to 

 normal life. It is thus a feeling akin to hysteria and has the same 

 general causes. Like listeria, it is not a character, but an abnormality. 

 It is a state of deficient emotional control — a paralysis of the higher 

 centers that should dominate thought and activity. Irritability, pas- 

 sion, uncontrollable sex feelings and hysteria all represent the lack of 

 something that is normally present, not the presence of characters absent 

 from normal people. They are manifestations of retardations through 

 which people fail to reach a full development. Defects represent the 

 loss of characters due to this retardation. The higher centers fail to 

 act with sufficient promptness and the retarded person falls under the 

 control of strong persistent feelings that upset normal thought and 

 control. In the parts where defects appear instead of positive char- 

 acters, emotion and hysteria control instead of reason. 



These persons with abnormal tendencies are aroused and dominated 

 by the fully developed people of their own type; they have an aversion 

 to people of other types. If a person is naturally musical, but through 

 some defect or disease his powers are practically dormant, he will be 

 lifted into a new realm by persons of great musical power. The 

 capacity to enjoy music is in this defective person; it is made dormant 

 by adverse conditions, but it can be aroused by contact with musical 

 talent; and is forced by the new stimulus and excitement through a 

 rapid development. There seems to be a miraculous change and with 

 it a tremendous emotional outburst. The strong thus exert a tonic 

 influence over the weak and retarded of their own type. The hero is 

 not a super-man ; he is the normal man ; his followers are just like him 

 in character and heredity. The defects of environment and personal 

 development have kept them from attaining his level and give to him 

 a dominance over their lives through the stimulus towards a better self- 

 expression than his example and life give. The instantaneous con- 

 version of religion does not come to the normally developed man, but 

 he can stimulate a conversion in defective, retarded people of his own 

 type. Strong emotions, irresistible impulses, instantaneous changes, 



