SOCIAL HEREDITY 193 



him and if we have every facility to satisfy our de- 

 sire to imitate him. This law of the imitation of the 

 nearest, of the least distant, explains the gradual and 

 consecutive character of the spread of an example that 

 has been set by the highest social ranks. We may infer, 

 as its corollary, when we see a lower class setting itself 

 to imitating for the first time a much higher class, that 

 the distance between the two has diminished." 38 

 Whether the ideas of an individual shall be accepted by 

 his fellow-countrymen depends not so much upon the na- 

 ture of those ideas as upon the degree of prestige which 

 that individual has or can secure. For example, a far- 

 sighted social reformer who has given years of study to 

 some problem of great importance to a community, may 

 not get a hearing with the most interested party, the 

 public, while some political demagogue, who boasts party 

 achievements, may secure attention. 



An idea or a practice, once imitated by a people, tends 

 to spread to the maximum extent possible under the 

 given conditions of society. It tends to reach a maxi- 

 mum degree of diffusion or saturation, and only recedes 

 or disappears under the influence of some newly intro- 

 duced antagonistic rival. 



The imitation of one person by another or of one social 

 class by another, does not result in precise reduplication 

 of the practice. That is, imitation is never exact. There 

 is always some individual variation, some improvement 

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

 meant by saying that imitation is refracted by its media. 

 The cook does not imitate exactly the hat of her mistress. 

 She gets the general effect of the stylish shape, but the 

 hat is reproduced in cheaper material. Imitations are 



p. 224, 



