384 
FORCE OF CUSTOM. 
be, for that which is offensive on the part of another 
is considered a virtue in themselves. Accustomed 
to act upon the impulse of the moment, and to take 
summary vengeance for injury, real or imagined, 
their worst deeds are but in accordance with their 
own standard of right, having no moral sense of 
what is just or equitable in the abstract, their only 
test of propriety must in such cases be, whether the}^ 
are numerically, or physically strong enough to 
brave the vengeance of those whom they may have 
provoked, or injured. Custom has, however, from 
time immemorial, usurped the place of laws, and 
with them, perhaps, is even more binding than they 
would be. Through custom’s irresistible sway has 
been forged the chain that binds in iron fetters a 
people, who might otherwise be said to be without 
government or restraint. By it, the young and the 
weak are held in willing subjection to the old and 
the strong. Superstitious to a degree they are 
taught from earliest infancy to dread they know 
not what evil or punishment, if they infringe upon 
obligations they have been told to consider as 
sacred. All the better feelings and impulses im- 
planted in the human heart by nature, are trampled 
upon by customs, which, as long as they remain 
unchanged, must for ever prevent them from rising 
in the scale of civilization and improvement, or to 
use the apt and expressive language of Captain 
Grey upon this point, vol. ii. p. 217 : — 
