Variable Ideals 207 



The reluctance to change which has many times been virtu- 

 ous in its refusals of invitations from the beaten path, 

 becomes error at last. When this opposition to novelty is 

 allied with a selfish love of power, which often develops in 

 the exercise of it, there arises the situation where new 

 wisdom stands in rebellion before the old. It is equally true 

 that in decadent times, popular loss of wisdom will leave 

 the established moral rules and their ministers in an isola- 

 tion of superiority, from which influence has departed. In 

 both cases there is breaking up or separation into opposing 

 groups, with loss of sympathy between the old leaders of a 

 community and its less conservative elements. 



