120 CREATIVE INVOLUTION 



and all the other prerequisites of good class-instruc- 

 tion. 



The most potent factors for mental unity are, 

 without doubt, suggestion and imitation. Sug- 

 gestibility is at its maximum in children. Binet tells 

 us that nearly all children over the age of seven are 

 hypnotisable, and we need no authority to speak of 

 the imitativeness natural to all children. The in- 

 hibitive power can be maintained only if the sugges- 

 tions received differ from one another; if the sug- 

 gestions reinforce one another, as they do in the 

 class-room, no personal resistance can withstand 

 them. Men of strong character are carried off their 

 feet by the volume of suggestion that emanates from 

 numbers ; how much more so children ! When we 

 stop to think that fatigue accentuates suggestibility, 

 we must realise the utter powerlessness of any but 

 the exceptional child to cope with the mighty forces 

 at work in our schools to draw him into the vortex 

 of the super-conscious. There is, in fact, no as- 

 signable limit to the mastery of the crowd-self over 

 its unfortunate constituents. Nor does the effect of 

 this dominance end with the separation of the in- 

 dividuals forming the group. Not only is their in- 

 dividuality greatly weakened, but the crowd-habit is 

 likely to persist throughout life. The large number 

 of fraternal orders and societies of all kinds testify 

 to the truth of this assertion. Ours is indeed an 

 " era of crowds." 



