CUSTOM 



" Whatever is off the hinges of custom is believed to be also 

 ofF the hinges of reason ; though how unreasonably, for the most 

 part, God knows." — Montaigne. 



EVERY human being grows up inside a 

 sheath of custom, which enfolds it as 

 the swathing clothes enfold the infant. 

 The sacred customs of its early home, how fixed 

 and immutable they appear to the child 1 It 

 surely thinks that all the world in all times has 

 proceeded on the same lines which bound its tiny 

 life. It regards a breach of these rules (some of 

 them at least) as a wild step in the dark, leading 

 to unknown dangers. 



Nevertheless its mental eyes have hardly opened 

 ere it perceives, not without a shock, that whereas 

 in the family dining-room the meat always pre- 

 cedes the pudding, below-stairs and in the cottage 

 the pudding has a way of coming before the 

 meat ; that, whereas its father puts the manure 

 on the top of his seed-potatoes in spring, his 

 neighbor invariably places his potatoes on top 

 of the manure. All its confidence in the sanctity 



206 



