240 CULTURE 



the press, the bonds of habit have been loosened, 

 and inventors not infrequently see their ideas 

 accepted with much credit to themselves may, 

 indeed, amass large fortunes. Custom is no 

 longer firmly crystallized ; and it is interesting to 

 observe that its disintegration began amongst 

 the leisured classes whose habits were not hardened 

 by the unbending routine of daily work. It is 

 amongst the aristocracy of Europe that dress has 

 for centuries been exhibiting its protean changes : 

 it has been the upper classes that have introduced 

 tobacco, tea, and coffee to their immense import- 

 ance in modern economics : it has been amongst 

 them that the liberal ideas have arisen which have 

 revolutionized the tone of politics. These ideas 

 have insisted upon the fundamental equality of 

 man : they have spread to the masses and have 

 had the natural result of impelling the poor to 

 imitate the rich. Political power may be shared 

 by all : deference must be reciprocal, and respect 

 develops into mutual courtesy. However in- 

 expensively, the dress of the leisured is imitated 

 by the working classes ; and we may instructively 

 compare the fashionable garb of a Sunday crowd 

 on Hampstead Heath with the time-honoured 

 costumes still worn by the peasantry of a remote 

 Bavarian village. The inclination towards reform 

 the promptings of a questioning spirit have, 

 we may believe, been assisted very greatly by the 

 influence of self-consciousness, for which increas- 

 ing scope is afforded by modern habits of mind. 

 The more clearly we see ourselves the less 

 mechanical we are disposed to be in our behaviour. 

 But to affect the heart-strings, imitation must be 

 energized by the spirit of change stronger in 

 some individuals and races than in others, un- 

 nerved during countless generations by the 

 hostility of Nature, or pent beneath the weight of 



