What then are those elements,—those sources of power and strength which are the vital mainsprings in the formation of your character?
Imitation plays an important part in this great work. The same passion that impels you to seek society, impels you to take part with your companions in their interests and inclinations. Insensibly you fall into their customs and manners, adopt their sentiments, their passions, and even their foibles. This principle is especially active in children; hence they love to mimic whatever strikes the organ of sense; and soon as the young idea begins to shoot, and the embryo of the character to appear, they form themselves unconsciously after the similitude of those with whom they converse. But for this their progress would be very slow, and their conformity to persons and things around them very slight. With this faculty spontaneously active, how soon they learn to talk, to adopt the peculiarities of others, and copy the mechanical and other inventions! Now, women are but children of larger growth, and are mightily influenced by imitation. Follow, therefore, the example of good women. As the moral virtues constitute the highest order of human excellence and endowment, copy them wherever you find them. Theatricals are the legitimate product of imitation. Shall they be patronized? Undoubtedly they might be so conducted as to become a great public blessing; but as they are at present managed, they are undoubtedly a great curse. Still, those who deplore the influence of the theatre should labour to correct it, rather than seek to demolish it altogether; for it is founded on a natural element of the human mind, and must live as long as humanity exists. Destroyed it can never be, any more than hunger or any other natural or legitimate product of any other faculty. All that remains is to sanctify and rightly wield its mighty power for good. Nevertheless, we must express our unequivocal disapproval of the theatre as now conducted, and warn you especially against it.
There is in human nature a strong tendency to sympathise with others in their modes of thought and feeling. All know something about the readiness with which the act of yawning is induced in a company if a single person begins to yawn; the facility with which hysterical convulsions are induced in a female hospital ward by a single case; the fascination of its prey by the serpent, apparently by the power of the eyes; the similar power exerted by so-called electro-biologists and mesmerists, and by which some can control even the fiercest carnivora. Sympathy is a mighty power, and may aid you mightily in the formation of your character. In no country is it more deeply felt than our own, where a free press, free speech, and free association, are in full operation. Just as matter has a tendency to conform to the temperature of surrounding matter, so mind has a tendency to cool or kindle with surrounding minds. An effort to benefit others operates beneficially upon those who put it forth; thus proving that people cannot be made a blessing to others without enjoying an enlarged blessing themselves. The great events of life, which stir the deepest feelings of the human heart—birth, marriage, death—occur in every household, lighting up with a common joy, or involving in the shadow of a common gloom, the palace and the cottage alike. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” How near does our beloved queen seem to be to the poorest widow in the land, now that, amid all the pomp of her royalty and the splendour of her unrivalled station, she is suffering from the painful sense of her great bereavement. Moreover, the heart of the country at once thrills with sympathy when tidings are heard of some great disaster, that has brought death to many, and desolation and misery to more; though they may be the poorest of the poor, and dwellers in some far-off land. It is not more true, however, that we weep with those who weep, than that we rejoice with those who rejoice. There is a charm in general gladness that steals upon us without our perceiving it; and if we have no cause of sorrow, it is sufficient for our momentary happiness that we be in the company of the happy.