SOCIAL HEREDITY 191 



of one people spread by imitation to another people. 32 

 The imitation of one people by another has been a prin- 

 cipal condition of the progress of civilization in all its 

 stages. The peoples of western Europe imitated the 

 Romans, their religion, their laws, their architecture and 

 their material civilization. The Romans imitated the 

 Grecian world which they had conquered. In modern 

 times Japan has deliberately imitated certain features 

 of European civilization. 



Imitation tends to spread in geometrical progression. 33 

 The spread of any culture element, a belief, an art, a 

 convention, a sentiment, a habit or attitude of mind of 

 any kind, tends to proceed in geometrical progression, 

 because each individual or body of individuals that imi- 

 tate the new idea and embody it in practice, becomes the 

 center of radiation of the idea to all communicating in- 

 dividuals or groups. Moreover, with each step in the 

 spread of the idea over a wider area to larger numbers 

 of people, the power of mass-suggestion grows. 34 The 

 rate of spread is marvelous. A new style of wearing the 

 hair, such games as ping-pong and diabolo, appear mys- 

 teriously, become all the rage for a period, then disap- 

 pear as suddenly as they came. Naturally this spread 

 of imitation is conditioned by the density of population, 

 the degree of development of the means of communica- 

 tion, and the use made of those means. Because of this 

 law of imitation, a higher degree of cultural uniformity 

 is possible in the United States than in Africa. Local 

 dialects are gradually passing away in civilized nations. 



It is owing to contra-imitation that fashions are so 



ssMcDougall, op. tit., pp. 334-335. 



ss Tarde, G. The Laws of Imitation, Parsons trans., 2nd. ed., pp. 19-20, 

 115. s^McDougall, op. cit., p. 33G. 



