244 CULTURE 



design and finish of execution. These artistic 

 upspringings were subsequently over-laid by 

 influences from the Mediterranean ; but they 

 rose again to the surface, and flowered in Gothic 

 architecture. 



Individuals and communities have not un- 

 commonly followed a lead because they were pressed 

 from behind by circumstances. The migrations 

 which have influenced human history so pro- 

 foundly have often been urged by scarcity of land 

 or pasturage : customs and laws have perforce 

 been adapted to the complications that arise from 

 a growing population or material progress. It 

 was an argument for the abolition of slavery that 

 slave labour was ceasing to be profitable. In 

 these cases reason has played a part in the advance 

 of reform. But, generally, its authority has been 

 less compelling than it would please us to believe. 

 Even at the present day its vision is clouded by the 

 prejudice of habit. We may, indeed, be excused if 

 we distrust our reasoning faculties. On the most 

 burning political questions of the day we see men 

 of acute intellect divided in opinion and arrayed, 

 one side against the other, in opposing camps. It 

 is not, then, strange that we should be content 

 with the guidance that we receive from our 

 feelings and habits. We are astonished that, in 

 the East, improvements in economics or in man- 

 ners should spread so slowly. But our own 

 expenditure is regulated very largely by the 

 dictates of custom. It can hardly be said that 

 patent medicines generally deserve their wide 

 popularity. Political economy, in so far as it 

 assumes that conduct is determined by calcula- 

 tion, may justly be termed a visionary science. 

 The articles which we purchase, and the shops 

 at which we purchase them, are settled for us, in 

 great part, by habit and imitation. 



