standards, our political faith, and our religious creeds. Our views of life and the
values we set on its attainments are largely a matter of imitation.
Individuality in Imitation.—Yet, given the same model, no two of us will
imitate precisely alike. Your acts will be yours, and mine will be mine. This is
because no two of us have just the same heredity, and hence cannot have
precisely similar instincts. There reside in our different personalities different
powers of invention and originality, and these determine by how much the
product of imitation will vary from the model. Some remain imitators all their
lives, while others use imitation as a means to the invention of better types than
the original models. The person who is an imitator only, lacks individuality and
initiative; the nation which is an imitator only is stagnant and unprogressive.
While imitation must be blind in both cases at first, it should be increasingly
intelligent as the individual or the nation progresses.
Conscious and Unconscious Imitation.—The much-quoted dictum that "all
consciousness is motor" has a direct application to imitation. It only means that
we have a tendency to act on whatever idea occupies the mind. Think of
yawning or clearing the throat, and the tendency is strong to do these things. We
naturally respond to smile with smile and to frown with frown. And even the
impressions coming to us from our material environment have their influence on
our acts. Our response to these ideas may be a conscious one, as when a boy
purposely stutters in order to mimic an unfortunate companion; or it may be
unconscious, as when the boy unknowingly falls into the habit of stammering
from hearing this kind of speech. The child may consciously seek to keep
himself neat and clean so as to harmonize with a pleasant and well-kept home, or
he may unconsciously become slovenly and cross-tempered from living in an ill-
kept home where constant bickering is the rule.
Often we deliberately imitate what seems to us desirable in other people, but
probably far the greater proportion of the suggestions to which we respond are
received and acted upon unconsciously. In conscious imitation we can select
what models we shall imitate, and therefore protect ourselves in so far as our
judgment of good and bad models is valid. In unconscious imitation, however,
we are constantly responding to a stream of suggestions pouring in upon us hour
after hour and day after day, with no protection but the leadings of our interests
as they direct our attention now to this phase of our environment, and now to
that.
Influence of Environment.—No small part of the influences which mold our