The picture which was
unsuccessful with the sweets would perhaps have been eminently
successful for tobacco. From such elementary starting-points, the
laboratory experiment might proceed systematically into spheres of
economic life hitherto untouched by scientific methods. The psychology
of the influence of external forms on the conscious reactions of the
masses is so far usually considered only when, as often happens, the
most fundamental demands are violated; for instance, when objects
which are to give the impression of ease are painted in colors which
give a heavy, clumsy appearance, or _vice versa_, when book-bindings
are lettered in archaic type which makes the reading of the title
impossible for a passer-by, and in many similar antipsychological
absurdities which any stroll through the streets of a modern city
forces on us.
XXII
EXPERIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO ILLEGAL IMITATION
It is perhaps not without interest to turn into a by-path at this
point of our road. All the illustrations which we have picked out so
far have referred to strictly economic conditions. But we ought not to
forget that these economic problems of commerce and industry are
everywhere in contact with legal interests as well. In order to
indicate the manifoldness of problems accessible to the experimental
method, we may discuss our last question, the question of packing and
of labels, in this legal relation too.
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