479 
1884 .] Thoughts on Imitation. 
only fixed the particulars in his memory and associated the 
sound with meeting of deer after it has been uttered, — he, 
in addition, sees that there is here a certain advantage to 
be derived, and accordingly reproduces the whistle with great 
fidelity. Further observation will doubtless disclose many 
more instances of purposive imitation in the conduct of 
animals, as distinguished from involuntary mimetism. But 
most of the animals which possess the tendency to imitation 
in a high degree, such as the monkeys and parrots, are not 
carnivorous, and therefore cannot have any such motive as 
the tiger or the leopard above mentioned. 
We must therefore inquire what properties the imitative 
animals have in common ? They are all, probably, deci- 
dedly sociable ; all occupy an eminent rank in their 
respective groups, and all, from man downwards, have a 
highly developed brain and nervous system. They all re- 
quire a language as a means of communicating to each 
other their wants, their fears, and, to a certain extent, their 
ideas. But were they not imitative they evidently could 
never have possessed languages. The sounds made by 
each would not have been repeated by others, and would 
thus never have become the common inheritance of the 
species. 
But there is a further consideration : the higher the deve- 
lopment of any animal, species, or individual, the less 
exclusively are its actions to be understood on utilitarian 
principles. If we analyse the activity of man, keeping our 
eye especially on the highest races, and the highest members 
of such races, we find that no small proportion of such 
activity is directed to objects which have no direCt connec- 
tion with the preservation either of the individual or of the 
species. The savage, when not ministering to the direCt 
wants, nutritive or sexual, of the passing moment, does 
very little indeed. The savant and the artist seek to 
minimise the share of their energies employed in self- 
preservation. Viewing this wide range within the boundaries 
of one species, commonly so called, is it too much to 
suspeCt that, even in certain of the lower animals, a portion 
of vital energy and of time may be consumed in pursuits, 
which might be dispensed with ? The caged parrot, indeed, 
utilises the human language which it learns by calling 
attention to its wants. But, as far as I can judge, it de- 
rives pleasure from imitating the cries of cats, dogs, 
poultry, the sounds of musical instruments, and the 
creaking of machinery. In like manner the monkey feels 
