2oi REPETITION Sect. XXII. 3. & 



and fenfaticns, and thus conflitutes all the operations of our 

 minds. 



2. Imitations refolvc themfelve's into four kinds, voluntary, 

 fenfitive, irritative, and afTociate. The voluntary imitations aie, 

 when we imitate deliberately the actions of others, either by 

 mimicry, as in acting a play, or in delineating a iiower ; or in 

 th mon actions of our lives, as in our drefs, cookery, lan- 

 guage, manners, and even in our habits of thinking. 



Nut only the greateft part of mankind learn all the common 

 arts of life by imitating others, but brute animals feem capable 

 of acquiring knowledge with greater facility by imitating each 

 other, than by any methods by which we can teach them ; as 

 dogs and cats, when they are fick, learn of each other to eat 

 grafs ; and I fuppofe, that by making an artificial dog perform 

 certain tricks, as in dancing on his hinder legs, a living dog 

 might be eafiiy induced to imitate them ; and that the readieft 

 way of inftructing dumb animals is by practicing them with 

 others of the fame fpecies, which have already learned the arts 

 we with to teach them. The important ufe of imitation in ac- 

 quiring natural language is mentioned in Section XVI. 7. and 

 8. on Inltinct. 



3. The fenfitive imitations are the immediate confequences 

 €>f pleafurc or pain, and thefe are often produced even contrary 

 to the efforts of the will. Thus many young men on feeing 

 cruel furgical operations become fick, and fome even feel pain 

 in the} arts of their own bodies, which they fee tortured or 

 wounded in others ; that is, they in fome meafure imitate by the 

 exertions of their own fibres the violent actions, which thev 

 vitneffed in thofc of others. In this cafe a double imitation 

 takes j firft the obferver imitates with the extremities of 



optic nerve the mangled limbs, which are prefent before his 



cond imitation he excites fo violent action of 



the fibt< 1 oi • r. limbs as to produce pain in thofe parts of 



his own body, which he faw wounded in another. In thefe pains 



;he effect Iras fome fimilarity to the caufe, 



thes them from thofe produced by aflbektionj 



as t: ins of the teeth, called tooth-edge, which are produced 



tion with difagreeable founds, as explained in Sect. 



T; of this powerful agent, imitation, in the moral 



led in ! . XVI. 7. as it is the foundation of 



ns and pleasures of 

 the fource of all our virtues, j 

 athy with the mif rics, or with the 

 ares, but in an in voluntary excitation of 



ideas 



