IN HIGHER PEOPLES 157 



ages to repeat a question that is asked them, in- 

 stead of giving the answer. While savages are 

 excellent mimics, they bungle greatly if anything 

 is left to their intelligence. 



Fashions are exhibitions of the imitative in- 

 stinct. Women are much more inclined to imi- 

 tate each other than men are, because they have, 

 on the whole, more of the characteristics of the 

 child psychology. 



There are fashions in ideas just as there are 

 fashions in dress. If nearly everybody in a com- 

 munity believes in a certain way, it is almost as 

 hard for any one of us to think differently from 

 what the rest do as it is for a bird not to fly up 

 when the rest do. 



Independence, self-reliance, and originality are 

 opposed to the imitative instinct and tend to 

 weaken and displace it. These qualities indicate 

 strength and maturity, just as the tendency to im- 

 itate others indicates weakness and inferiority. 

 **The eccentricity of genius" is a common expres- 

 sion of the fact that persons of extraordinary 

 originality are disposed to act in ways that are 

 unlike those of ordinary people. I remember once 

 of hearing Prof. Lester F. Ward, of Brown Uni- 

 versity, say that he came very nearly being 

 mobbed one warm day in September when he 

 walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, 

 D. C, with a straw hat on. It was the custom to 

 put aside straw hats the first of September, and 

 the small boys and small-bore adults who gar- 



