1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign, 



423 



the public, the general intercourse of so- 

 ciety, come peculiarities in families, trades, 

 professions, and, on a larger scale, in tribes 

 and nations. 



The propensity has been often remarked, 

 but the power by which the imitation is ac- 

 complished Mr. S. claims to be the first 

 philosopher, whose notice it has attracted. 

 What is this power then ? Instinctive. But 

 what say we of the mimic? His is instinctive 

 too. What does he do ? Are his efforts 

 merely tentative? No, says Mr. S. ; gene- 

 rally, he succeeds at once ; his correctness he 

 ascertains, not by a mirror, but by conscious- 

 ness. Effort may contribute to perfection ; 

 but an approximation at least is generally 

 prompt ; and approximation in this matter 

 is as remarkable as complete assimilation. 

 The effect is often instantaneous, and with 

 scarcely any effort ; the mimic knows at 

 once, and internally, whether he succeeds or 

 not. It is not the result of experience. Here 

 then is something original instinctive. But 

 this is not a whit more surprising than what 

 we experience in every voluntary motion. 

 I will to move my arm, and the requisite 

 machinery is instantly arranged, and put 

 into motion, for the purpose. All I think of 

 is a particular end. The means by which it 

 is accomplished are neither combined by my 

 reason, nor are they subject to my scrutiny. 

 So the mimic, adds Mr. S., when he attempts 

 to imitate the countenance of another, con- 

 ceives strongly in his mind the portrait he 

 wishes to exhibit. He thinks only of the 

 end, and a few efforts to accomplish it con- 

 duct him, by a process which philosophy 

 cannot explain, to the effect which he aims at. 



But further; this power of imitation is in- 

 timately connected with the interpretation 

 of natural signs. Imitate the signs of rage, 

 and you will experience more or less of the 

 feeling. Of course this must not be carried 

 too far. Nobody, it seems, must suppose 

 that by copying the looks of a Bacon, or of 

 a Newton (these names are of eternal re- 

 currence), a mimic would feel himself in- 

 spired with any portion of their philosophical 

 sagacity. 



Medical men refer different kinds of en- 

 thusiasm, convulsions, hysteric disorders, pa- 

 nics to this principle of imitation ; many of 

 which, however, are correctly assignable to 

 imagination, and must not be confounded. 

 Mesmerism, probably, and the effects pro- 

 duced by Whitfield and Wesley. This con- 

 stitution of our nature, Mr. S., on due consi- 

 deration, ventures to conclude, is "subser- 

 vient to beneficent and important purposes,'' 

 as we may with perfect safety predicate of 

 whatever is strictly natural. It is, he con- 

 ceives, of the highest importance in the edu- 

 cation of children. Set before them good 

 models, and they will copy them more or 

 less, as they will bad ones. In this way is 

 best caught whatever is graceful in utterance 

 or gesture. With the conviction of the ex- 

 tensive operation of this principle, who can 



hesitate upon the advantages of public edu- 

 cation ? " By what means, but by the so- 

 ciety of their fellows, is it possible for youth 

 to acquire that command over the exteraal 

 expressions of their capricious humours, which 

 is to furnish them, in future life, with one of 

 the most powerful restraints that reason can 

 call to its assistance in mastering and sub- 

 duing the passions." The use of ventri- 

 loquism, Mr. S. inclines to refer more to 

 imagination than to imitation. If the ven- 

 triloquist imitate the signs of distance, the 

 imagination may be made to supply those of 

 direction. " Suppose a ventriloquist to per- 

 sonate a father, in the attitude of listening 

 from a window to the voice of his child, who 

 is exposed to some sudden ad imminent 

 danger below. It is ensy to conceive him 

 possessed of such theatrical skill, as will 

 transport in imagination the audience to the 

 spot where the child is supposed to be placed, 

 and so rivet their attention to what is pass- 

 ing there, as will render his imitation of its 

 feeble and distant cries a much more im- 

 posing illusion than it would otherwise be." 

 Suppose again, the performer to carry on an 

 imaginary dialogue up a chimney with a 

 chimney-sweeper in danger of suffocation. 

 A very imperfect imitation, aided by the ex- 

 cited imagination, will produce an effective 

 scene. 



So much then for the two faculties of lan- 

 guage and imitation reviewed in the volume 

 before us. These, with the powers considered 

 in the former volumes, make up what be 

 termed the constituents of the human mind. 

 These constiiuents exist, in different indivi- 

 duals, in different degrees of capacity, or in- 

 tensity, and of course produce different re- 

 sults. Different combinations of them con- 

 stitute the varieties of intellectual character. 

 Mr. S. decides not on the question of original 

 equality. Were these faculties originally 

 the same, different circumstances must spee- 

 dily produce different results. The superior 

 intensity of these powers severally direct some 

 individuals to one pursuit, and some to 

 another. One set is employed by the meta- 

 physician, another by the mathematician, 

 and another by the poet. Mr. S. very care- 

 fully points out the tendencies of exclusive 

 occupations, and suggests the usual barriers 

 and remedies, as every body does and has 

 done, we were going to say, from the crea- 

 tion of the world. Eut then, with respect 

 to the sexes, Plato says, there is no natural 

 difference between the sexes, but in point of 

 strength. In this opinion, says Mr. S., I have 

 no doubt Plato is right. The intellectual and 

 moral differences between the sexes seem to 

 me to be entirely the result of education ; 

 using that word, in its most extensive sense, 

 to comprehend not merely the instruction 

 reveived from teachers, but the habits of 

 mind imposed by situation, or by the phy- 

 sical organization of the animal frame. But 

 physical organization is a very wide phrase, 

 Mr. S., and the cause of differences, pro- 

 bably, with which education, in any intelli- 



