If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet another on
the street without making some mark upon him. We say we exchange words
when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when intercourse is very
close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange that
recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's
nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to
the first.
Now, we become like those whom we habitually reflect. I could prove
from science that applies even to the physical framework of
animals--that they are influenced and organically changed by the
environment in which they live.
This mysterious approximating of two souls, who has not witnessed? Who
has not watched some old couple come down life's pilgrimage hand in
hand, with such gentle trust and joy in one another that their very
faces wore the self-same look? These were not two souls; it was a
composite soul. It did not matter to which of the two you spoke, you
would have said the same words to either. It was quite indifferent
which replied, each would have said the same. Half a century's
_reflecting_ had told upon them; they were changed into the same
image. It is the Law of Influence that _we become like those whom we
habitually reflect_: these had become like because they habitually
reflected. Through all the range of literature, of history, and
biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There
was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a savor of Jonathan about
David. Metempsychosis is a fact. George Eliot's message to the world
was that men and women make men and women. The Family, the cradle of
mankind, has no meaning apart from this. Society itself is nothing but
a rallying point for these omnipotent forces to do their work. On the
doctrine of Influence, in short, the whole vast pyramid of humanity is
built.
But it was reserved for Paul to make the supreme application of the
Law of Influence. It was a tremendous inference to make, but he never
hesitated. He himself was a changed man; he knew exactly what had done
it;