SOCIAL IIKKKlim 193 



him and it' we have every 1 satisfy our !- 



This law of the imit i the 



nearest, of the 1,1. e\piai; gradual and 



.t !. .- i i. ad of ail example that 



has been set !> the ~...-ial rank-. We may infer, 



corollary, w hen we see a lower class setting itself 



to iinita 1 tli.- lir-t time a iniieh higher class, that 



the distance between the two has dii !."* 



her the ideas of an individual shall be accepted ly 



How count!) men depends not so much upon the na- 



of those ideas as upon the degree of prestige which 



individual has or can seem.-. For Cample, a far- 



d social reformer who has given years of study to 



proMem - to a community, may 



not get a hcarini: with the most sted party, the 



pul.li.-. \\ hile some i>oliti< al demagogue, who boasts party 



a i hieveiiM-iit>. may secMire attention. 



.1 or a pra-tic... (me0 iniitat.-d by a people, tends 



to spread to the maximum extent jmssihh* under the 



. conditions of so< ach a maxi- 



mmn dagree of diffusion 01 recedes 



or <li ;ndcr the inllu some newly i 



luci-d antagonistic ri\ 



<>f one IKTSOII by another or of one social 

 class by another, tides not re ult iif precis,- redupli* 

 ofth- OS. Tl never exact. Then* 



is always some individual variation, some improvement 

 or some neglected aspect of the model. This is what is 

 meant by saying that imitatim d l.\ its media. 



The cook does not 'unit. tly tii.- hat of her mistress. 



_rets tlie general eiTi-ct of the stylish shape, but the 



.per mat. -rial. Imitations are 

 p. 224. 



