and jealousy may be said to head the list of our instincts. It will be impossible in
our brief space to discuss all of this list. Only a few of the more important will
be noticed.
3. THE INSTINCT OF IMITATION
No individual enters the world with a large enough stock of instincts to start him
doing all the things necessary for his welfare. Instinct prompts him to eat when
he is hungry, but does not tell him to use a knife and fork and spoon; it prompts
him to use vocal speech, but does not say whether he shall use English, French,
or German; it prompts him to be social in his nature, but does not specify that he
shall say please and thank you, and take off his hat to ladies. The race did not
find the specific modes in which these and many other things are to be done of
sufficient importance to crystallize them in instincts, hence the individual must
learn them as he needs them. The simplest way of accomplishing this is for each
generation to copy the ways of doing things which are followed by the older
generation among whom they are born. This is done largely through imitation.
Nature of Imitation.—Imitation is the instinct to respond to a suggestion from
another by repeating his act. The instinct of imitation is active in the year-old
child, it requires another year or two to reach its height, then it gradually grows
less marked, but continues in some degree throughout life. The young child is
practically helpless in the matter of imitation. Instinct demands that he shall
imitate, and he has no choice but to obey. His environment furnishes the models
which he must imitate, whether they are good or bad. Before he is old enough
for intelligent choice, he has imitated a multitude of acts about him; and habit
has seized upon these acts and is weaving them into conduct and character.
Older grown we may choose what we will imitate, but in our earlier years we are
at the mercy of the models which are placed before us.
If our mother tongue is the first we hear spoken, that will be our language; but if
we first hear Chinese, we will learn that with almost equal facility. If whatever
speech we hear is well spoken, correct, and beautiful, so will our language be; if
it is vulgar, or incorrect, or slangy, our speech will be of this kind. If the first
manners which serve us as models are coarse and boorish, ours will resemble
them; if they are cultivated and refined, ours will be like them. If our models of
conduct and morals are questionable, our conduct and morals will be of like
type. Our manner of walking, of dressing, of thinking, of saying our prayers,
even, originates in imitation. By imitation we adopt ready-made our social