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of a common physical evolution, we differ somewhat in tempera- ment, and as products of social evolution we differ more. And if two persons are products of alien societies, then they do not share common conventionalities of self-expression and "communica- tion." Yet even then there is a universal language of visible expression and conduct. Even within the same nation and the same town there are differences of social development, and within the same family differences of biological inheritance; but the similarities are great and conspicuous, and the differences likely to be subtle and comparatively minute. However, there are many persons too unlike wholly to understand each other. The most prized experiences of some cannot be apprehended by other some, and that which we most hate we may never wholly comprehend, unless we hate it having disapproved it as present or possible within ourselves.
In the process of human intercourse we have developed to a wonderful degree the art of communication so as to be able to express shades of difference, and have acquired skill in interpret- ing, in terms of our own natures, experiences that never would have been original to ourselves. Man has an insatiable interest in the psychic activities of his associates, both for the satisfaction he takes in contemplating, analyzing, criticising, and appreciating them, and also for the practical necessity of understanding this most active, helpful or harmful, portion of his environment. Where interest is strong, there intellectual power and skill develop ; and the skill of men in understanding each other is per- haps the highest everyday manifestation of intelligence. It may be that it is not only an individual skill, but also an instinct developed by the social necessities of the race. Desires and pur- poses are not only divined from the subtlest signs, but also fore- told before they are formed. And even when men deliberately lie and pretend, employing generally understood symbols in order to deceive, their fellow-men are skilled to discover not only the meaning which the deceiver intends to convey, but also the pres- ence of deception and the motives of the fraud. It is true this skill in reading one another breeds corresponding skill in dis- simulation, but both forms of skill are tributes to the subtlety with
