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INTELLECTUAL AND IMITATIVE 



is dependant on mental reflection and study. But 



the immediate cause of our propensity to imitation, 

 above that of other animals, arises from the greater 

 facility with which, by the sense of touch, we 

 acquire the ideas of the outline of objects, and, 

 afterwards, in consequence, by the sense of sight. 

 This seems to have been observed by Aristotle, 

 who calls man "the imitative animal;" and is 

 thus finely described by Darwin : — 



Hence when the inquiring hands with contact fine 

 Trace on hard forms the circumscribing line ; 

 Which then the language of the rolling eyes 

 From distant scenes of earth and heaven supplies ; 

 Those clear ideas of the touch and sight 

 Rouse the quick sense to anguish or delight ; 

 Whence the fine power of imitation springs, 

 And apes the outUnes of external things ; 

 With ceaseless action to the world imparts 

 All moral virtues, languages, and arts. 



Physical and mental imitations are widely dif- 

 ferent. That which can be acquired by an animal, 

 being physical, dies with the animal, as he has not 

 the power of transmitting it to others of his species. 

 We never find any of the brute creation attempting 

 to instruct its progeny in any of the acquirements 

 which it has received under the tuition of man: 

 the animal dies, and all his education perishes with 

 him, and nothing remains to his progeny save the 

 inherent qualities peculiar to his species. But how 

 different is this with the human being ! 



