He replied to the charge by the remark that his country was in the heavens; distinctly implying that he had deliberately merged the duties of the citizen in those of the astronomer, and that love to his country was essentially annulled by the higher love which he cherished for his chosen science. We obviously have here an instance of the inordinate exercise of the principle under consideration. It was not duly subordinated. It became so intense as to conflict, in the view of an enlightened conscience, with the proper exercise of other feelings and with the discharge of other duties.

§ 117. Imitativeness, or the propensity to imitation.

Another of the original propensities of the human mind is the principle of Imitation, or the desire of doing as we see others do. We find the evidence of the existence of such a principle everywhere around us.

(I.) If this propensity be not natural, it will be difficult to account for what every one must have noticed in infancy and childhood. And we take this occasion to remark, that, on this whole subject, we shall refer particularly to the early periods of life. That is a time when human nature will be likely to show itself in its true features. And, in respect to the principle now before us, it is certain that children are early found to observe with care what others do, and to attempt doing the like. They are greatly aided by this propensity in learning to utter articulate sounds. It is not without long-continued efforts, in which they are evidently sustained by the mere pleasure of imitation, that they acquire the use of oral language.

At a little later period of life, after having learned to articulate, and having become old enough to take part in juvenile sports, we find the same propensity at work. With the animation and formidable airs of jockeys, they bestride a stick for a horse, and try equestrian experiments; they conduct their small and frail carriages through courts and streets, and journey with their rude sledges from one hill-top to another. Ever busily engaged, they frame houses, build fortifications, erect waterworks, and lay out gardens in miniature. They shoulder

a cane for a musket; practice a measured step and fierce look; and become soldiers, as well as gardeners and architects, before they are men.

(II.) But the operation of this propensity is not limited to children; men also do as their fathers have done before them; it often requires no small degree of moral courage to deviate from the line of precedents. Whether right or wrong, we feel a degree of safety so long as we tread in the path of others.

This is shown in the most solemn transactions, particularly in judicial decisions. Seldom does the judge appeal to original principles of right, and build his decisions on the immutable will of the Supreme Being, as it is revealed in the moral sentiments of mankind, if he must do it in the violation of a precedent. It is highly probable, that the idea of a system of law, built upon precedent, and essentially supported by the mere fact of antecedent authority, was suggested, at least indirectly, by the principle before us. So prone were men to follow in the steps of their fathers, that, even in cases of right and wrong, they were not willing to deviate from the beaten track; and although we are willing to admit that the decisions of the Common Law have ever been supported by various considerations of their safety and wisdom, it is nevertheless true that they derive a large portion of their stability from that effective trait in man's nature, which impels him, as if by a sort of enchantment, to walk in the path which his progenitors have trodden. If we could expel from the human bosom the principle of imitation, there would be far less efficacy attached to many of the opinions, and decrees, and doings of our ancestors than there is at present. But, undoubtedly for sufficient reasons, it is wisely ordered that such an expulsion is impossible.

118. Practical results of the principle of imitation.

It may perhaps be supposed by some, whatever evidence may exist in favour of regarding the principle under consideration as an original one, that it has but a slight connexion with the advancement and the happiness of mankind. But it is a remark not unfrequently to

be made in respect to the principles of the mind, that often results of great magnitude are found to connect themselves with elements in human nature, that appeared in themselves exceedingly insignificant. Such, it is possible, may be the case here. We often speak of imitativeness as a principle which governs children; but are less willing to acknowledge, which is hardly less the fact, that it is a principle which governs men. We cannot doubt, from the reflection we have been able to bestow upon it, that the principle before us, whatever aspect it may present at first sight, was designed to be, and is in fact, one of the important supports of society; a source of knowledge, happiness, and power. If this principle were obliterated, the bond of union, which now holds so closely together the two great divisions of society, the old and the young, would be greatly weakened; an event in all points of view much to be deplored. Not only in childhood, but in mature age, as we have already had occasion to intimate, we walk in the steps of our fathers, following in arts and in manners the same practices, and sustaining the same institutions; and it is desirable, as a general thing, that we should do so. And we do it, not merely because we suppose them to be clothed with the attribute of superior wisdom, but also because we are prompted, often unconsciously to ourselves, by the influence of this powerful principle. And it is in this way, partly at least, that generation is connected with generation; that the torch of experience, lighted in the preceding age, is made to shed its beams over that which follows; and that society, kept in the vicinity of the beaten track, is not subject to sudden and disastrous convulsions.

We would merely add, if this principle has such vast influence, as we have no doubt that it has, it is incumbent on every one carefully to consider the nature and tendency of the example which he sets. He who sets a bad example, either in domestic or in public life, is not only blasted and withered in himself, but almost necessarily leads on in his train a multitude of others to the same results of degradation and ruin. On the contrary, he who does good in his day and generation, infuses, whether he designs it or not, the effulgence of his exam

ple into a multitude of hearts, which nature has opened for its reception; and thus, with better and higher results, lights them upward to happiness and glory.

119. Remarks on the subject of emulation.

In giving an account of those mental principles which we profess to introduce and examine under the general head of Propensities, we should probably be thought to have left the subject but partially explored if we were to say nothing on the topic of Emulation. By the term Emulation, for there does not appear to be a perfect agreement as to what is expressed by it, is sometimes understood the desire of equality, but more frequently the desire of SUPERIORITY. In regard to Emulation, the general view of Mr. Stewart, in which he would probably be followed by many persons, is this. He regards it, like those propensive principles which have come under our notice, as implanted or original; like them, too, although not very high in the comparative honour which we attach to it, he considers it as innocent and useful when restricted within the limits of its appropriate sphere of action. When it passes those limits, he describes it as being evil, and as being properly designated by the term Envy.

Whether to yield our assent to this opinion, supported by an authority from which, in most cases, it might not be safe to differ, we hardly know. There is one difficulty, however, in receiving it, which we propose for the reader's consideration. In all the active principles which constitute the department of our mental nature, which is now the subject of consideration, from instinct upward to conscience, there is obviously a gradation not only of honour, but of AUTHORITY. And as conscience is the highest on the list, they are all subordinate, in the determination of their respective claims, to the intimations and decisions of that paramount faculty. This we hold to be a great and irrefragable truth in mental philosophy, which nowhere finds an abler and more decided advocate than in Mr. Stewart himself.

But if Emulation be the desire of superiority, as it is generally understood to be, we do not readily perceive

how it can by any possibility subject itself to that rule of subordination which is a first principle in the structure of the sensitive or active mind. The desire of superiority, if it actually exists implanted in the human constitution, must, from its very nature, throw defiance at the doctrine of subordination. Whatever, in virtue of any rule of comparison that can possibly be applied, sustains a higher rank, at once brings this principle into conflict; and the contest which is thus generated can never be quieted until the relative position of objects is changed, and that which previously stood foremost subsides to the inferior station of a dependant or a follower. As man, therefore, by the very conditions under which he is created, is in fact, and ever will be, in a state of inferiority, as compared either with the members of his own race or those of a higher race of beings, he is permanently located in the midst of a perpetual conflict. It is the very nature of a desire to prompt to action; to counteract every disposition to inertness; to urge forward in the race of acquisition or advancement. And as he is surrounded by beings that are in some respects superior, either physically or mentally, either in the gradations of existence, or in some of the situations and circumstances of existence, he finds no rest to the sole of his foot; it is his misery that he cannot, even if he had a disposition to, close his eyes to his situation; the sight of every object above him, even of angelic natures, kindles a consuming fire in his bosom. It would seem that the contemplation of the Supreme Being himself, if SUPERIORITY is truly the original and appropriate object of emulation, would excite the rivalries of this unhallowed ambition. It is not easy to suppose that such a principle, leading to such fearful results, and placed so far beyond the regulation of any controlling influence, is implanted, as an original and essential element, in the mental constitution.

§ 120. Emulation resolvable into the principle of imitativeness. We are inclined to the opinion, on such a consideration of the subject as seemed to be required by the difficulties attending it, that Emulation is not, as is commonly supposed, a separate and original principle. We sup