1904.J MASON — RIPENING OF THOUGHTS IN COMMON. 151 



shadow of the window frame as it falls there and blow the dinner 

 horn. You can imagine a wave of this joyful sound sweeping 

 across the continent every day from ocean to ocean, and its pre- 

 cisely similar effects on the spirits and bodies of millions on the 

 farms, constituting a!n aggregate appetite. In precisely the same 

 way the social and political life is agitated, and yet men are amazed 

 to find themselves warming up on the same topics. 



In Washington City there are fifty thousand employees. They go 

 to their work at a certain signal. Just at standard noon the 

 whistles blow and they simultaneously and without consultation 

 drop their work. There is a story going around of an old cabinet- 

 maker in one of the Departments, who was so punctual in this 

 regard that once when he was driving a nail and the whistle com- 

 menced to blow, he left his hatchet up in the air, like Mohammed's 

 coffin, and went to his lunch. 



It is often said that women are governed by instinct, but men by 

 reason. The former share more thoughts in common, they are 

 more conservative, even in savagery. So the actions performed 

 over and over pass into semi-automatism, and without notice the 

 thoughts associated with them arise together in many minds. 

 Even the thoughts go in sets and cliques, and one will awaken the 

 rest by association. 



Now and then in the industrial world, through the pleadings of 

 environment, the inspiration of genius, the intense rivalries of 

 trade, new tools, devices, processes and products, and new harness 

 for the forces of nature are devised. The purely original in these 

 are the exceptions, not the rule of action ; and, besides, there is 

 more survival than new creation in any one of them, as the suits for 

 interference in the Patent Office will demonstrate. 



Fine Art. 



The aesthetic faculty affords, with its schools and even national 

 styles, most wonderful examples of the force of emotions felt in 

 common. Canons of criticising the methods of appealing to the 

 senses may be defined as expressions of the thoughts which artists 

 of a certain epoch or school have come to hold in association. The 

 same faculty becomes mixed with social life and gives rise to fash- 

 ions and styles. Hence they say you might as well be out of the 

 world as out of fashion. 



It will be asked whether this community among the agents and 



