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.
IMITATION DISAPPROVED
It is no use to try to get another man's
style, or to imitate the wit or the mannerisms
of another writer. The late Mr. Carlyle,
for example, did, in my judgment, a
considerable mischief in his day because he
led everybody to write after the style of his
"French Revolution," and it became pretty
tedious. They got over it after a time, how-*ever.
But it was not a good thing. Let
every man write in his own style, taking care
only not to be led into any affectation, but
to be perfectly clear, perfectly simple.—Charles
A. Dana.
(1526)
IMITATION OF GOD
For the Father of all sends sun and rain
On the good and ill and shows that we,
If we would his perfect children be,
Must love not only the good and kind,
Must teach not only the true and wise,
But patience must open the eyes of the blind
And love must conquer her enemies.
(Text.)—Charles William Pearson,
"A Threefold Cord."
(1527)
IMITATION OF NATURE
How far the manual and technical arts
of human life owe their suggestion and
origin to imitation is a point which, so far
as I know, has not been fully considered.
That the first canoe was made in imitation
of a rotten tree which had served as a ferry-*boat;
that the first pillar was constructed
in the likeness of an erect tree; that the
Gothic arch was made to represent the over-*reaching
boughs in some forest glade; that
the triglyph in the Doric frieze represents
the ends of the cross-beams which rested on
the architrave—all this seems very probable,
and suggests that further investigation
might show that to a great degree imitation
of the objects of nature, or of earlier
structures, underlies all the various arts and
products of human labor.—Lord Justice Fry,
Contemporary Review.
(1528)
See Nature a Model.
