Some men try to imitate good character as precious stones are imitated,
according to this description:
The trade in artificial precious stones has become quite
important, and the manufacture of them has reached a
considerable degree of perfection. The products of some of the
shops would almost deceive an expert, but the test of hardness
is still infallible. The beautiful “French paste,” from which
imitation diamonds are made, is a kind of glass with a mixture
of oxide of lead. The more of the latter the brighter the stone,
but also the softer, and this is a serious defect. The imitation
stones are now so perfectly made and are so satisfactory to
those who are not very particular, that their influence begins
to be felt in the market for real stones. By careful selection
of the ingredients and skill and attention in manipulation,
the luster, color, fire and water of the choicest stones are,
to the eyes of laymen, fully reproduced.--_Popular Science
Monthly._
(1522)
* * * * *
Imitation, as we see it in man, seems to extend over a wider
range of action and production than in any other animal. It
is not confined, as in the monkeys, to the production of like
attitudes or bodily acts; it is not confined, as in the birds,
to the imitation of sounds; it includes all alike, and is
characterized, furthermore, by conscious pleasure in the doing.
Every one who has observed children knows the keen delight with
which they first perceive the likeness between two things; that
to recognize in a picture a thing which they have actually seen
is a distinct enjoyment; that in the same way the second telling
of a story, or the second playing of a game, seems to give an
additional and independent pleasure to the child. And so with
ignorant people when they look at pictures, the great, if not
the only source of pleasure seems to be the detecting of the
likeness to something they know. After the artists of Greece
and Rome had reached their highest levels and done their best
work, the critic of art found in the exactness of the likeness
one of the highest, perhaps the highest element of excellence.
The birds that flew to the grapes of Zeuxis, the horse that
neighed to the painted horse of Apelles, the painted curtain of
Parasius that deceived Zeuxis himself--these seemed to Pliny,
and, I suppose, to the ancient world generally, to be the
highest tributes to the excellence of the artists.--Lord Justice
FRY, _Contemporary Review_.
(1523)
Our evil deeds as well as our good ones will be imitated, often to our
own undoing as in the following incident:
The _Green Bag_ tells of an experience which Nathaniel
Whitmore, a prominent Maine lawyer, had with a student who was
graduated from his office. When Mr. Whitmore was past sixty this
young man started practise in a neighboring town; and the older
lawyer gave him charge, as agent, of certain property situated
in the town where his former clerk was practising. Everything
was drawn up in legal form, and the young man fulfilled his
duties most satisfactorily. The rents came regularly, together
with full accounts of repairs, which were much less than
formerly; tenants were satisfied; the property never paid so
well before, and Mr. Whitmore was well pleased. Then came a
brief letter stating that the property had been sold for taxes.
Dumfounded, Mr. Whitmore hastened to his agent to demand what
this meant. “How does this happen that I am sold out for taxes?”
he asked. “There was nothing in the agreement about taxes,”
explained the young man, handing to his former client the signed
agreement. “Had taxes been mentioned, I should have paid them.”
“Who bought the houses?” the elder man asked, with a shade of
amusement in his tone, as a light began to dawn on his mind.
“I did,” replied the young man, modestly. “The devil you did!
Where did you learn that trick?” asked Mr. Whitmore, now fully
comprehending the situation. “In your office,” came the answer,
in the same modest voice. “I look out for a poor client, but a
rich lawyer can look out for himself.” The two men shook hands
and changed the subject.
(1524)
* * * * *
A beautiful statue once stood in the market-place of an Italian
city. It was the statue of a Greek slave-girl. It represented
the slave as tidy and well drest. A ragged, uncombed little
street child, coming across the statue in her play, stopt and
gazed at it in admiration. She was captivated by it. She gazed
long and lovingly. Moved by a sudden impulse, she went home and
washed her face and combed her hair. Another day she stopt again
before the statue and admired it, and she got a new idea. Next
day her tattered clothes were washed and mended. Each time she
looked at the statue she found something in its beauties until
she was a transformed child.
The history of the Christian religion has been a continuous record of
men transformed by contemplation of the great Example. (Text.)
(1525)
See CHRIST INVITING MEN; EXAMPLE, POWER OF.