IN HIGHER PEOPLES 155 



— in manners, dress, speech, walk, belief, occupa- 

 tion, etc. 



The tendency to do as others do is much strong- 

 er in higher peoples than it needs to be. We often 

 imitate others in spite of ourselves, even to our 

 disadvantage, in obedience to an urge which sur- 

 vives in us from the past. 



In all animals that live in groups or societies, 

 that is, in gregarious animals, the conduct of each 

 individual is determined largely by the conduct 

 of the rest of the group. There is a certain uni- 

 formity in the conduct of the members of the 

 group. If some of the members do a certain thing, 

 there is a tendency in the rest to do the same 

 thing. 



In a school of fishes, if some of them dart away, 

 the whole school will do the same thing without 

 thinking. It is the same way with birds. They 

 are each geared to do what the rest do, and they 

 do it without thinking — often, it seems, in spite 

 of their thinking. Once in a while when a flock of 

 birds fly up, there may be one or two with origin- 

 ality enough to remain. But this is generally the 

 result of repeated alarms of the same kind, and 

 the ones that refuse to fly are the ones with more 

 sense and strength of mind than the rest. Expe- 

 rience in this case modifies the original instinct. 



Children are highly imitative. They are always 

 copying those around them, especially those who 

 strike their fancy or stand high in some way. The 

 child will is not only weak but untrained. It is 



