78 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



apperception should not be regarded as only a move- 

 ment idea, for if that were all it is, animals, at least, 

 would seek to imitate every motion they see, and we 

 might expect to see a child at once begin a swaying 

 motion on beholding a pendulum, instead of reaching 

 for the ball of it, as it does." * 



Spencer also, James, and Strieker, regard the imita- 

 tive impulse as an inherited instinct, and I think it is 

 safe to trust these psychologists.! 



The imitative impulse is thus found to be an instinct 

 directly useful in the serious work of life among most, 

 and presumably among all, of the higher gregarious ani- 

 mals. Its simplest manifestation is the taking to flight 

 of a whole herd as soon as one member shows fear. J A 

 more particular case is seen among certain domestic 

 animals that blindly follow a leader — a fact well known 

 to the crafty Panurge in Kabelais's grotesque romance, 

 when during the voyage he wants to play a joke on the 

 owner of a flock of sheep.* This phenomenon, which 

 may be explained by the principle of division of labour 

 (for in this way one animal can watch for the whole 



* Der menschliche Wille, p. 311. 



f Sully's ground for combating this view (The Human Mind, 

 1892, vol. ii, p. 218), namely, that imitation first appears in a child's 

 fourth month, is, of course, no argument against the heredity of 

 the impulse. [Baldwin has published a special criticism of the 

 arguments against the instinct- view of imitation, loc. cit. ; and 

 Bain, who formerly did not accept the instinct-view, has recently 

 adopted it. Cf. Baldwin, Mind, January, 1894, p. 52 ; and Bain, 

 Senses and Intellect, fourth edition, p. 441.] 



\ According to Wallace, the white back of many animals is a 

 signal of danger for inciting their comrades' imitation in flight. 

 Darwinism, pp. 217 ff. 



* He persuaded the owner to sell him a sheep, chose the bell- 

 wether, and threw him overboard, whereupon the whole flock 

 jumped after him and were drowned. 



