O'SHEA — A8PECT8 OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 197 



of this old adage, although we see its truthfulness il- 

 lustrated every day of our lives. We realize that we gradually 

 become like those with whom we associate. I cannot be in 

 the presence of a friend without unconsciously but yet surely 

 incorporating into my own activities his peculiarities of voice, 

 facial expression, carriage, gesture, and so on. The subcon- 

 scious phase of personality seems to be charged with the re- 

 sponsibility of making the individual like his environment. 

 When he looks upon a face showing constraint of lips and eyes, 

 he tends to reproduce these tensions in his own features; if 

 he listens to a high-pitched, raspy voice, he feels a strain in 

 his own vocal organs. And so it goes, throughout the whole 

 gamut of human activities ; people that go together get to act and 

 even look alike I 1 



Physiologists in our day are calling attention to the vast im- 

 portance in human life of this method of suggestion or imita- 

 tion, whereby we take as copies the people around us and mold 

 ourselves upon them; 2 and it is of especial importance as it 

 relates to the economv of vital forces. When we are in the com- 

 pany of people who are fatigued, who are over-scrupulous, 

 fussy, tense, and constrained in all their expressions, we quickly 

 reproduce their tensions and so waste energy. Most of us in- 

 stinctively avoid these "bottled lightning" people, these nerv- 

 ous hypochondriacs ; the preservation of life demands it. Now, 

 a student cannot always determine the company he keeps, but 

 yet he is in a way master of the situation ; and if he be of the 

 type easily suggested to he should above all things avoid living 

 in the same quarters with a neurotic individual, for if he does 

 his forces will steadily run off without profitable issue. To 

 choose a well-poised and well-nerved room-mate is one of the 

 most important undertakings which can engage the attention 

 of a student. If it should be asked, what will become of the 



1 See for a great many illustrations of this law, Russell: Imitation and Al- 

 lied Activities; Small : The Suggestibility of Children, Ped. Sem., Vol. IV, No. 2; 

 Sidis : The Psychology of Suggestion, Parts on Normal Suggestion and Social 

 Suggestion. 



2 See Baldwin, Mental Development, Methods and Processes, Chapters VI and 

 IX, X, XI, XII ; Vernon Lee and C. A. Thompson : Beauty and Ugliness, Con- 

 temporary Review, Vol. 72, pp. 544-569, and 669-688 ; Scripture : The New Psy- 

 ■cholog-y, pp. 248-261 ; Wundt : Human and Animal Psychology, pp. 323-339. 



