126 MEMORY, HABIT, AND IMITATION 



long for imitators when their ideas are opposed 

 to habits that are so strengthened. This was 

 Galileo's experience ; and it may be remarked 

 that the commanding authority of Newton and 

 Darwin has repressed, as well as stimulated, 

 original research. 



: SI 



The imitative impulse influences the external 

 actions of the body. May it not also affect its 

 physical development ? There is apparently no 

 reason why we should limit the powers of mimicry 

 to conscious behaviour : we may quite sub- 

 consciously acquire an alien accent. Many plants 

 and animals will change their colour some will 

 indeed change their form in a changed environ- 

 ment : many appear to have mimicked the colours 

 of other animals, the colour and even the shape 

 of the foliage amidst which they live. We search 

 for a useful purpose in these transformations, 

 and assume that they are protective. Some ol 

 them are : others are not. So also some flowers 

 that may be attractive to insects are fertilized by 

 insects : others, not less attractive in appearance, 

 fertilize themselves. It is the fashion to hold that 

 these "protective" devices are the relics of a multi- 

 tude of casual variations which owe their survival to 

 their incidental possession of some utility. On 

 this hypothesis variations that have become 

 innate owe nothing to the imitative impulse. 

 It is, however, difficult to believe that random 

 changes, however closely weeded by the struggle 

 for life, could have led to the mimicry of leaves 

 and twigs by certain insects, to the imitation 

 of snow by some Arctic animals during the 

 winter months. It may be urged that no instances 

 are forthcoming of the development of a trait 

 from its origin in individual mimicry to its 



