KEVOLT AGAINST CEREMONIAL RULE. 93 



Thus, then, may be recognised the meaning, the natural 

 ness, the necessity of those various eccentricities of reform 

 ers which we set out by describing. They are not acci- 

 dental ; they are not mere personal caprices, as people are 

 apt to suppose. On the contrary, they are inevitable re- 

 sults of the law of relationship above illustrated. That 

 community of genesis, function, and decay which all forms 

 of restraint exhibit, is simply the obverse of the fact at 

 first pointed out, that they have in two sentiments of hu- 

 man nature a common preserver and a common destroyer. 

 Awe of power originates and cherishes them all : love of 

 freedom undermines and periodically weakens them all. 

 The one defends despotism and asserts the supremacy of 

 laws, adheres to old creeds and supports ecclesiastical au- 

 thority, pays respect to titles and conserves forms ; the 

 other, putting rectitude above legality, achieves periodical 

 instalments of political liberty, inaugurates Protestantism 

 and works out its consequences, ignores the senseless dic- 

 tates of Fashion and emancipates men from dead customs. 



To the true reformer no institution is sacred, no belief 

 above criticism. Everything shall conform itself to equity 

 and reason ; nothing shall be saved by its prestige. Con- 

 ceding to each man liberty to pursue his own ends and sat- 

 isfy his own tastes, he demands for himself like liberty ; and 

 consents to no restrictions on this, save those which other 

 men's equal claims involve. No matter whether it be an 

 ordinance of one man, or an ordinance of all men, if it 

 trenches on his legitimate sphere of action, he denies its 

 validity. The tyranny that would impose on him a partic- 

 ular style of dress and a set mode of behaviour, he resists 

 equally with the tyranny that would limit his buyings and 

 sellings, or dictate his creed. Whether the regulation be 

 formally made by a legislature, or informally made by so- 

 ciety at large — whether the penalty for disobedience be im- 

 prisonment, or frowns and social ostracism, he sees to be a 



