« CONSERVATISM 67 



As Benjie says to-day: 'My senses! they got 

 fine harbours an' fine craft to Cornwall. 'Tis a 

 country created, like, for boats and shipping. 

 I've a-put in, 'fore now, to Penzance and St. Ives, 

 an' an't I a-catched they master-congers off 

 Falmouth, here's luck!' 



In the ancient book, the notes on fishermen 

 and fishing ports sound the most modern, because 

 to put it the other way round, in modern times 

 fishermen live In the most ancient manner. They 

 depend on that which is changeless in its change- 

 ableness, the sea and luck. They have the more 

 primitive conservatism of men to whom two 

 days are never the same — a conservatism backed 

 by the active fatalism (as opposed to the passive 

 variety) which comes from the hazards of fishing 

 and the sea. Having few things certain In life, 

 they hold the more stubbornly to those that are. 

 'If the fish be there, us'll hae 'em, an' If they 

 baln't us won't. That feeling they carry home. 

 'What will be, will be; 'tis the way o'lt, an' us 

 can't help o'lt; you can but plug out and do 

 your best.' That is commonly their philosophy. 

 Therefore they stay in the oldest houses, speak 

 the oldest forms of dialect (among themselves), 

 keep to their customs and their own rig, and, 



