20 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 210. 



tions themselves fall into difiPerent group- 

 ings. At the very beginning of conscious 

 life certain elements which are to enter into 

 a consciousness of kind begin to appear in 

 experience. They consist of like sensations 

 received from self and from others who re- 

 semble self. 



On the basis of these experiences there 

 are developed others that call for investiga- 

 tion from the same point of view. When 

 suggestion begins to play an important part 

 in mental life are suggestions from persons 

 very unlike self equally efficacious with 

 suggestions from persons nearly like self? 

 There is here a great field for investigation. 

 A thousand familiar observations strongly 

 indicate the superiority of suggestions that 

 come from those whose neural organiza- 

 tion resembles that of the person affected. 

 Why, for example, does Maudsley venture 

 to say, without oS"ering the slightest proof, 

 that, while men are as liable as silly sheep 

 to fall into panic when they see panic among 

 their fellows, they are not similarly liable 

 when they perceive panic among sheep ? 

 Obviously, because facts of this general 

 character are so familiar that no one would 

 think of questioning them. In like man- 

 ner, a child who objects to performing a 

 certain task which his father asks him to 

 do will do it without hesitation if he sees 

 other boys in the street engaged in the same- 

 work. Phenomena like these, of course, 

 have their origin in a like responsiveness 

 of like organisms to the same stimulus. 



A third class of experiences and activi- 

 ties, which are ultimately to enter into a 

 consciousness of kind, and that are already 

 very probably dominating ' the dialectic of 

 personal growth,' are imitations. Here, 

 also, there is room for exact investigation ; 

 but we may predict at the outset that in- 

 vestigation will verify the common opinion 

 that we chiefly imitate our similars. The 

 equally familiar fact that we do not always 

 do so is of immense importance for the the- 



ory of variation, invention and originality. 

 And this theory, I believe, is not to be con- 

 structed without referring back to the truth 

 mentioned above, that the ego is at all times 

 the original and dominant element in the 

 ' dialectic of personal growth.' I am not 

 at present prepared to give my reasons, but 

 I expect that it will be shown that in the 

 same reaction of the organism upon the or- 

 gan which is the source of ethical motive 

 will be found the source of originality, vari- 

 ation and the occasional imitation of those 

 who difi^r from, rather than resemble, our- 

 selves. 



The factors thus far considered, namely, 

 like responsiveness of like organisms to 

 the same stimulus, like sensations received 

 from self and from others who resemble 

 self, a greater responsiveness to suggestions 

 from like selves than from not-like selves, 

 and a greater readiness to imitate like 

 selves than to imitate not-like selves, to- 

 gether make up the organic sympathy that 

 is a bond of union in those groups of animals 

 that Professor Baldwin calls companies, and 

 the bond of union of men who act together 

 impulsively rather than reflectively— the 

 bond, in short, of the mob. It is certain 

 that organic sympathy depends on organic 

 likeness, and the phenomena that have 

 been named above are the psychological 

 correlatives of organic likeness. 



How is organic sympathy converted into 

 a higher or reflective sympathy ? The true 

 answer, I think, is : Through the mediation 

 of that perception of resemblance which 

 is the initial stage in the conversion of a 

 mere sensational experience or likeness into 

 a reflective consciousness of kind. When 

 the power to perceive relations and to make 

 discriminations arises, the perception of 

 resemblances and dififerences among one's 

 fellow-beings becomes an all-important fac- 

 tor in the further development of social 

 relations and in the ' dialectic of personal 

 growth.' From that moment organic sym- 



