ing them enter our minds than we can escape having material germs enter our bodies. And the only preventive against instant and indiscriminate imitation is constitutional mental energy. For, in normal states, the mind lies open to any action from without; any foreign idea finds instant access through the usual sensational channels, and at once proceeds to work, the possibly baleful effects to the host of such indiscriminate hospitality being tempered by the simple choking upon the premises of disagreeable outsiders after admission. The measure of success which the intruder achieves is determined by the amount of opposition it arouses. The more vacuous the host, the more the stranger has his own sweet way. In hypnotic subjects, where the mind is otherwise blank, any idea, if once introduced, receives actually more honor than it is accustomed to at home. A consideration, this, of the proverbial prophet kind, paralleled by the greater respect a policeman inspires in small boys who are unacquainted with him, or by the way in which a newspaper's editorials impress a simple public for their apparent impersonality. For the idea of another's personality
