PIONEERS OF CULTURE 239 



It appears, nevertheless, that society owes to 

 individual inventors or reformers the whole of its 

 culture, whether moral, artistic or material that 

 progress has, in fact, been pioneered by invention 

 and accomplished by imitation. L Until recent 

 years the development of culture has been exceed- 

 ingly slow. For the innovator has the imitative 

 impulse against him as well as for him: imita- 

 tion is not only a dynamic but a static force : 

 it is, indeed, far more potent in consolidat- 

 ing habit than in introducing reform, and the 

 bonds of habit can seldom be loosened 

 unless the impulse to imitate is reinforced by 

 some more strenuous feeling. And when habit 

 has been strengthened by the emotions of respect 

 or sympathy, it becomes a settled custom, with 

 foundation^ so strong as to be almost unassailable 

 by reform. Loyalty to a church, or to a king, 

 will survive the greatest discouragements ; sym- 

 pathy between members of a caste, or a profession, 

 will resist to the utmost any suggestions for 

 change, even in so small a matter as in traditional 

 style of dress. The Indian costume has remained 

 practically unaltered for many generations : so 

 has village dress in remote corners of Europe ; 

 and it is only of recent years that any relaxation 

 has been tolerated in the customary dress of 

 Anglican clergymen. The conservative force of 

 habit is strikingly illustrated by the immobility 

 of the East. But, judging from the slowness with 

 which man has climbed upwards from the savagery 

 of palaeolithic days, custom everywhere froze his 

 endeavours and shackled his faculties during 

 uncounted centuries. 



A change has come over modern Europe. 

 Amongst us, at the present day, inventive genius 

 has less prejudice to overcome. By travel, by 

 the dissemination of ideas in books and through 



