But it would be unreasonable to explain mimetic resemblance by one set of principles and cryptic by another and totally different set.
It is impossible to suggest, except by natural selection, any explanation of the fact that mimetic resemblances are confined to changes which produce or strengthen a superficial likeness.
The same conclusion is reached when we analyse the nature of mimetic resemblance and realize how complex it really is, being made up of colours, both pigmentary and structural, pattern, form, attitude and movement.
In France and Italy particularly, the Mimetic Art still flourishes; but in this country it is practically a lost Art.
Whatever quality the advocate may wish to represent as the client's distinctive characteristic, it must be suggested to the jury by mimeticartifice of the finest sort.
In the days of his forensic triumphs Henry Brougham was remarkable for the mimetic power which enabled him to describe friend or foe by a few subtle turns of the voice.
The fact seems to be that ancient and modern Italy possessed the same mimetic faculty and used it in the same fashion.
In a powerfully mimetic race like the Italians, the rudiments out of which it was constructed were, as we shall see, indigenous.
Parody strongly resembles mimicry, a principle in human nature not so artificial as it appears: Man may be well defined a mimetic animal.
This unprofessional air ended by striking the observer as the very profession he had adopted, and was indeed, so far as had as yet been indicated, his mimetic capital, his main qualification for the stage.
Finally it is possible to develop by training in higher animals a certain mimetic and acoustic conventional language-symbolism, by utilising for this purpose the peculiar dispositions of such species.
Hence it follows that to the psychologist and especially to the psychiatrist--and as such I am here speaking--the mimetic expression, glances and acts of a man often betray his true inner being better than his spoken language.
We shall have to consider, in a future chapter, the architecture and mimetic art of the people to weigh their merits in these respects, and, at the same time, to note their deficiencies.
Of the mimetic art of the Persians we do not possess any great amount, or any great variety, of specimens.
We have now described (so far as our data have rendered it possible) all the more important of the ancient edifices of the Persians, and may proceed to consider the next branch of the present inquiry, namely, their skill in the mimetic arts.
Setting aside one mutilated statue, of very poor execution, and a single rock tablet, we have no specimens remaining of Assyrian mimetic art more ancient than this monarch.
Next to the architecture of the Assyrians, theirmimetic art seems to deserve attention.
Illustration: PLATE 66] The second period of Assyrian mimetic art extends from the latter part of the eighth to nearly the middle of the seventh century before our era; or, more exactly, from about B.
The progress of mimetic art under Sargon is not striking but there are indications of an advance in several branches of industry, and of an improved taste in design and in ornamentation.
The sculptures of Asshur-izir-pal, besides proving directly the high condition of mimetic art in Assyria at this time, furnish indirect evidence of the wonderful progress which had been made in various important manufactures.
However, we believe that a lack of knowledge of cockroach mimicry is not a valid reason for rejecting the idea that mimicry, if it occurs, may be of some benefit in the survival of mimetic species.
It is not known whether cockroaches are protected by apparent mimetic resemblances to other arthropods.
So impressionable and mimetic the sex is, and such its bent toward extremes, that women trained to Sports comport themselves in after-life as though playing a competitive game.
In the education of girls, the Subconscious mimetic element in their impressionable natures should be borne in mind.
No comedian, we believe, of whom we have any record, excelled those efforts in variety of mimetic effect, facial expression, and display of comic power.
These “spectacles” were the vehicle that carried the mimetic ballet through the Dark Ages from Rome’s licentious theatre and banquet hall to the stately salon of the Medici.
The dance gives full employment to the Gipsy’s mimetic powers, and in fact serves primarily as an emotional expression.
One of the comparatively formalised mimetic expressions is the Dance of Greeting, the function of which is to honour a guest when occasion brings him into the house.
The mimetic dramas that have sprung into life with and as part of the new school draw material from legends dark and savage, lyrical and dreamlike.
In short, the secessionists had attained to a point that marked nothing less, and something more, than a re-creation of the mimetic drama of the best days of Athens.
In St. Petersburg, the Imperial Opera House dedicates two nights a week to mimetic ballet.
In the mimetic vocabulary are certain phrases that are depended upon to convey their definite meanings.
Great mimetic ballets memorialised great events; simple rustic dances celebrated the gathering of the crops and the coming of the flowers.
These imperfectly mimetic insects may often obtain a casual immunity from attack by being mistaken for a twig by birds or lizards.
It is only in external matters, however, that the appearance of such mimetic species can ever be altered.
And now observe that while the graphic arts begin in the mere mimetic effort, they proceed, as they obtain more perfect realization, to act under the influence of a stronger and higher instinct.
Mimicry In a work of this kind it is neither possible nor necessary to consider in great detail the mass of evidence which has been advanced in favour of the theory of mimetic resemblance.
It is asserted that mimetic resemblances are produced in the most diverse ways; that the modes whereby the similarity in appearance is brought about are varied, but the result is uniform.
Batesian Mimicry We now come to the third great class of animal colours--mimetic colours.
Against the supposed ancestral non-mimetic forms existing on islands we can pit the "mimetic" orioles in small islands and their non-mimetic cousins on the mainland.
Professor Poulton believes that in all casesmimetic resemblance is the result of the action of natural selection.
It is thus our belief that the very perfection and detail of some so-called mimetic resemblances are a very serious objection to the theory of protective mimicry as enunciated by Professor Poulton and other Neo-Darwinians.
The second is the theory of Internal Causes, which states that mimetic resemblance is due to internal developmental causes.
The argument that mimetic resemblances are produced in the most diverse ways, but the result is uniform, loses much of its force when we consider the various methods by which short-tailed birds appear to have long caudal appendages.
The mimeticquality of their work was a secondary consideration.
All painting, ancient and modern, moves us aesthetically only in so far as it possesses a force over and beyond its mimetic aspect.
The modern tendency to make objects abstract and to divest subject-matter of all its mimetic qualities, has led some critics and painters to the false conclusion that form itself is unrelated to recognisable phenomena.
They rely chiefly on mimetic (exemplary) Magic which, by dramatising some natural process, brings it into real operation.
It has been suggested that the supposed force of mimetic Magic rests upon the belief that as a manaEuro(TM)s shadow or reflection implies his presence, so does his image.
Euro If this was arbitrarily invented, it was by analogy with much mimetic Magic: they set an example of what should happen and confirmed it with a spell.
All over the world wasps are imitated in form and movements by other insects, and in the tropics these mimetic forms are endless.
To those not acquainted with Mr. Bates's admirable remarks on mimetic forms, I must explain that we have to speak of one species imitating another, as if it were a conscious act, only on account of the poverty of our language.
The long narrow wings of the Heliconii butterflies, banded with black, yellow, and red, distinguish them from all others, excepting the mimetic species.
Thus, wasps and stinging ants have hosts of imitators amongst moths, beetles, and bugs, and I shall have many curious facts to relate concerning these mimetic resemblances.
I have heard this urged as a reason for believing that they could not have been produced by natural selection, because a much less degree of resemblance would have protected themimetic species.
In the Mordellidae the head is small, and nearly concealed beneath the large thorax; and in the mimetic forms the latter is coloured so as to resemble the large head and eyes of the wasp or fly imitated.
The extraordinary perfection of thesemimetic resemblances is most wonderful.
Besides the mimetic faculty, certain physical gifts are also needed by the opera-singer, according to the requirements of the line of rôles to which he is inevitably assigned by the nature and type of his particular voice.
Scenic accomplishments are undoubtedly necessary to the stage-singer, but his mimetic studies should not preclude him from making himself a thorough master of the vocal side of his art.
