THE CAUSES OF PERSECUTION 



is not often compelled to test the validity of 

 one's own conclusions by comparing them with 

 the different conclusions which other people 

 draw from the same data ; when one lives amid 

 a certain group of beliefs, customs, and observ- 

 ances that are never brought into comparison 

 (save, perhaps, in exterminating warfare) with 

 other differing groups ; under such condi- 

 tions as these it is noticeable that one's opinions 

 are formed with great promptness, and when 

 once formed are unchangeable. These are the 

 conditions under which the opinions of savages 

 are formed, and the chief characteristic in the 

 opinions of savages is their wonderful rigidity ; 

 you can no more change them than you could 

 teach a fox, when chased by the hunter, to 

 climb a tree like a cat. Or, consider the case 

 of an ignorant woman, in the lower classes of 

 civilized society. Her opinions about men and 

 things are formed in an instant, by some men- 

 tal process of which she can render no account, 

 and when once formed are utterly impervious 

 to fact or to argument. She acts on the tacit 

 assumption that she is infallible, precisely as 

 the savage acts. To think of hesitating for a 

 moment and questioning the validity of their 

 opinions, is something which never happens 

 to either of them. 



This is the obstinate fashion in which men 

 used to cling to their opinions in that crude state 

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