Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/833

 SOCIAL ASSIMILATION 819

and personal habit. But, in truth, there is no successful or conspicuous or simply fashionable model which men in the various stages of their progress will not endeavor to imitate. The habit of political imitation, which has

always been strong, still survives The agency by which the imitation is

carried out is Fiction, sometimes of the most audacious kind, and through it

an old order is constantly giving place to a new If an institution is once

successful, it extends itself through the imitative faculty which is stronger in barbarous than in civilized man. 1

Still, to M. Tarde belongs the honor of having made such a careful and original exposition of the subject of imitation that the attention of sociologists has since been critically drawn to the matter. Tarde has identified his name with the word " imitation " as completely as Darwin has his with the word "evolution." In societies practicing the coercive method of assimilation imi- tation is not allowed full sway. It is limited by class lines, is restricted to what Tarde calls "custom imitation," 2 or imitation of ancestors. But where the attractive method reigns, imitation is unrestrained and results in national assimilation. Here cus- tom imitation yields greatly to "mode imitation," or imitation of things new.

The task of denationalization or assimilation is, according to M. Novicow, to impose all the psychical manifestations elabo- rated by one society its language, religion, philosophy, sci- ence, literature, arts, law, manners, and customs upon another society. 3 But he further intimates that, after nationality has thus been acquired, there remains for assimilation a still higher duty,, namely, the establishment of great international federations, or "groups of civilization," as he calls them. 4 These groups wilt be stable and permanent, for they will be founded on an intel- lectual, rather than a material, basis. This great desideratum will be brought about by the assimilation of ideas, which is made possible through progress in science and invention. Signs that such a movement is at hand are not wanting. Indeed, over a hundred years ago Rousseau declared that there were no longer Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, or even Englishmen only

1 Early Law and Custom, pp. 284, 285.

'Les Lois de V Imitation, chap. vii.

3 Les Luttes entre Socittls humaines, pp. 128, 129. 'Ibid., pp. 575-98.