158 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [I m { 



what discernible, yet distorted ; similar, yet totally different ; 

 true to life in outline, yet wholly erroneous in detail. Wonder- 

 ful, under such circumstances, is the correspondence between 

 the objective truth and the subjective reality. Yet the dis- 

 parity is as tremendous as its existence is unsuspected, where the 

 clearness of the mind's image is mistaken for its correctness. 



EL. 



The Habit of Imitation. 



Animals living in societies often copy or imitate the actions 

 of an individual leader ; and among insects, this is particularly 

 remarkable with the procession caterpillars, which move more 

 or less in processional order. The procession is always headed 

 by a single caterpillar ; sometimes the leader is followed by one 

 or two in a single file, and sometimes by two or three abreast, 

 and the whole train pursues its track through every turn and 

 sinuosity without the slightest deviation. "Wild-fowl, in the 

 various forms they assume in their flight, are led by one 

 individual whose movements direct the flock. An entire flock 

 of sheep following each other through a hedge will often jump 

 when they reach a particular spot because their leaders jumped 

 there, and they do so although the particular obstruction which 

 first rendered the movement necessary has been actually 

 removed. In like manner, we constantly see men following 

 leaders, not because they have elected them to be their leader, 

 but because of that strong principle of imitation which stirs 

 them to follow. So, too, we may observe that when one fanatic 

 commences his crawlings over the tree of bigotry, there will 

 always be a procession of fanatics ready to follow him in his 

 peculiar courses. And when the mob has the example of one 

 of the most audacious of its numbers, there is soon a goodly 

 following. The working of the same principle is perhaps more 

 observable in the world of fashion than anywhere else. A 

 Royal personage, as the result of illness, is obliged to walk with 

 a limp. Forthwith fashionable ladies, the necessity for the 

 limp being entirely absent, go about limping. Alexander the 

 Great having a wry neck, it at once became the fashion in a 

 nation of slaves. To-day any little dapper fellow, moving in 



