Men, young and old--but the young more than the old--cannot help
imitating those with whom they associate. It was a saying of
George Herbert's mother, intended for the guidance of her sons,
"that as our bodies take a nourishment suitable to the meat on
which we feed, so do our souls as insensibly take in virtue or
vice by the example or conversation of good or bad company."

Indeed, it is impossible that association with those about us
should not produce a powerful influence in the formation of
character. For men are by nature imitators, and all persons are
more or less impressed by the speech, the manners, the gait, the
gestures, and the very habits of thinking of their companions.
"Is example nothing?" said Burke. "It is everything. Example is
the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other." Burke's
grand motto, which he wrote for the tablet of the Marquis of
Rockingham, is worth repeating: it was, "Remember--resemble--
persevere."

Imitation is for the most part so unconscious that its effects are
almost unheeded, but its influence is not the less permanent on
that account. It is only when an impressive nature is placed in
contact with an impressionable one, that the alteration in the
character becomes recognisable. Yet even the weakest natures
exercise some influence upon those about them. The approximation
of feeling, thought, and habit is constant, and the action of
example unceasing.

Emerson has observed that even old couples, or persons who have
been housemates for a course of years, grow gradually like each
other; so that, if they were to live long enough, we should