APING SLAVES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4571, 13 November 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

APING SLAVES.

(From the Liberal Review.) Mr. Darwin is, we think, one of the most unpopular of men in the country. The reason is that he has chosen to argue that men and women are more closely related to apes than they are pleased to Now an ape is not an agreeable animal, so it is natural that people should not like to bo reminded of their points of resemblance to it. Still, it is just as well that they should occasionally be so reminded, for, to a great extent, it rests with themselves whether they continue to resemble their brutish prototype in many of the said points or not. For one thing—-and it is perhaps the most important thing of all—they need not, as the ape is, be absurdly imitative ; there is no occasion why they should remain copyists of the most servile sort. As a matter of fact, it is pitiable in the extreme to see a lot of persons stifling their individuality and ignoring their best instincts in order that they may do as certain of their neighbors do ; especially when it is remembered that, in nine cases out of teu they do all this without receiving any reward except the reward of being made extremely uncomfortable. There would, perhaps, be little ground for dissatisfaction if individuals imitated only that which is good, but as they exhibit a preference for imitating that which is foolish and positively bad, there is reason why they should bo condemned, and the spirit of imitation should be heartily protested against. It may bo well to indicate what this spirit of imitation induces people to do. Well, it causes them to dress according to certain arbitrary rules, not of their own making, in defiance of the fact that they annihilate their comfort and make so many scarecrows of themselves. It is only necessary for a shopman to tell most of his customers that coats are all cut this way, and hats that way, that they” are making a lot of this, that, and the other, and the customers will at once abandon whatever ideas they may have upon certain matters, and lot him do with them pretty much as he pleases, provided, of course, that ho does not cause them to look singular. There is no reason to doubt that if some groat person took it into her head to wear a ring through her nose it would not btj long before a largo number of ladies would similarly ornament themselves. Seeing that they wear ear-rings, that they have passed through the age of crinoline, and that they don high-heeled boots which cause thorn to limp in a fashion the reverse of graceful, there is no ground for supposing that they would object to the discomfort which the adoption of the course indicated would entail upon them. Thou again, the imitative spirit leads people to paint their faces, to powder thoir hair, to use vulgar slang, to eat and drink that which does them harm when that which would do them good is ready to their hands, to indulge in amusements of a questionable character, and to do many other senseless things. It leads to all sorts of manias. Now there is a gymnastic mania, then there is a religious mania, a swimming mania, a dancing mania, a burlesque mania, a drinking mania, and so on. People seem afraid to do just what they please, and what they think right, for they have a horror of appearing singular. It requires a strong-minded man to say that ho likes a play which has not been voted a success ; that ho enjoys reading a book which has not secured the approval of those critics whose opinions he respects. Most persons, if they do not fight shy of the play and the book altogether, see the play surreptitiously and read the book on the sly. Perhaps they are discovered doing these things : then, of course, they make haste to remedy the gross blunder of which they have been guilty, and quickly establish thoir claim to be considered people of correct taste, by speaking of the book and the play in the contemptuous terms which they have heard employed by others. At the same time, so far as their judgment goes they are forced to confess to themselves that the play and the book when they made their acquaintance pleased them greatly. So one might go on cataloguing examples of how people sacrifice their judgment and play sad havoc with their feelings in the persistent attempts which they make not to stand alone. Most bad habits are the result of the imitative instinct. That of smoking is an example in point, for it cannot be pretended that it is indulged in in the first instance because it is a pleasure. Indeed, to most young smokers smoking is nauseous to the last degree, and they only continue to smoke in order that they may be like others. The habit of drinking, also, is the result of the imitative instinct. In proof of this it may be said that beer and most spirits are unpalatable to many of those who partake of them for the first time. Other and more reprehensible habits have also their origin in the cause indicated. There are a lot of helpless beings who are nothing if they are not imitators, and who are never happy except when they are imitating sundry models whom they have set up before them. Perhaps the said models ape singularity, but in aping singularity they are, unfortunately, as untrue to themselves as are those who sacrifice everything in order that they may swim with the stream. They act differently because they wish to appear different from their fellows, and not because they desire to let their natures have free play. Thus, they will wait to see what you are going to do before they will decide upon what they will do, and then diverge as much as possible from your path. But in all this they have some revered example before their eyes, and they are no more original than are those who never set up any claims to be so. Indeed, they are among the worst class of imitators, for they have the assurance to set a portion of public opinion at defiance without the courage to strike out a path for themselves. They dare not run counter to their particular set, and they are afraid to be singular except in ways that render them more or less objectionable to many of those with whom they are brought into contact. The unhappy mortals who imitate these fellows fall into excesses and vices of various kinds.

People being imitative, originality and genius often do not get justice dona to them, and this is one of the most terrible evils of the day. Nothing is appreciated until by some fortunate fluke it has become the rage, the bulk of people seem incapable of forming a judgment of their own. It is dangerous to be novel or to disseminate novel opinions of any kind, but so long as a particular folly is the rage you may descend to any depth of idiocy and still be con-' sidered amongst the salt of the earth. ILyou dross as pleases you best, without reference to the fashions, if you honestly say wh/t you think, if you go whore you like, how v*ou like, and when you like, if, in a word, you/ight shy of all shams, the chances are that you will bo called eccentric or mad, but if you torture your body so that you may appea/ like other people, if you, instead of saying what you think, say ditto to your neighbor, and if you only go where it is the “thing” to go, though by so doing you miss many gems, you will bo called a man of sound common sense and bo considered fit to act as a trustee or a town councillor.