148 president's address — section g. 



vatives. He encases himself, as Walter Bageliot says, in 

 "■a hard-shell of custom," the main fornj of Avhich is unalter- 

 able. At all events he nevei- wilHngly alters it, and when he 

 is com])elled to change he ])retends that the new form is in 

 accordance Avith the old pattern. And this is perfectly logical 

 and reasonable from his own point of view. For custom is the 

 tried and approved law of life, which has been handed down 

 to him by his ancestors, and they are his gods. It has 

 therefore to him all the force of divine law, the breach of 

 which will certainly be followed by terrible consequences 

 atfecting the whole community. To quote once more from 

 that article of mine: " Life to the savage is a sort of charmed 

 circle, of which custom marks the never-changing- circum- 

 ference. Within there is safety, but the terrible unseen 

 powers are on the watch outside. Hence comes an unvary- 

 ing sameness from generation to generation, as long as the 

 surroundings I'emain unchanged. The same thing is done 

 over and over again in the same way, because it is customary 

 and therefore safe. Experiment is a thing to be utterly 

 abhorred and put down with a strong hand. No man 

 can be a free agent, for what he does involves the whole 

 community. He is not at liberty to choose what he shall be 

 or what he shall do. Every man must be what his father 

 was ; he must do what his father did, and he must do it in 

 his father's way. In short, he must keep on the rails, for if 

 he leave them he may drag the whole train to destruction." 

 Among ourselves a man desirous of testing the explosive 

 powers of nitro-glycerine may be allowed to follow his bent 

 as long as he keeps his distance ; but if he were discovered 

 making his experiments in the powder magazine of a line-of- 

 battle ship, with all the crew on board, or in the midst of a 

 crowded market-place, it would not be easy to keep those 

 whose lives he had endangered from taking summary 

 vengeance upon him ; and they would feel towards him 

 jtrecisely as a savage tribe feels towards an innovator. 

 According to their notions, such a man puts them all in peril 

 of their lives, and they must hasten to mark their disappro- 

 bation of his action in such a way as to save themselves if 

 possible. To do this they take the shortest and most effectual 

 way — they wipe him out. No such thing as a " Liberal 

 party " is possible among savages. The conservatives have 

 it all their own way, and they take care that there shall be 

 none but conservatives extant. 



This line of research commends itself also by the excellent 



