IMITATION
Plutarch says that among the Persians those persons were considered most beautiful
who were hawk-nosed, for no other reason than that Cyrus had such a nose. In
Richard the Third’s court humps upon the back were the height of fashion. According
as the various potentates who have condescended to rule mankind have lisped, or
stuttered, or limped, or squinted, or spoken through their noses, these infirmities
have been elevated into graces and commanded the admiration of silly mortals. But
is there not more than a possibility that what we ridicule in the kingdoms of earth
may have its counterpart in the church? Is there not a tendency among Christians to
imitate the spiritual infirmities of their religious leaders, or oftener still of departed
saints? We may follow holy men so far as they follow Christ; the mischief is that we
do not readily stop where we should, but rather where we should not. Bunyan,
Whitfield, Wesley, Calvin, Luther, yes, by all means imitate them—but not
indiscriminately, not slavishly, or you will do so ridiculously. FA118
It is the way of mankind; they imitate each other as if by instinct, and this is the only
excuse I know of for Darwin’s theory of our having descended from the ape.
Imitativeness is well developed in us, but if left to itself it works with a bias the
wrong way, and the imitation is most forcible in the direction of deformity and defect.
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