GUSTO M. 
is that'cuftom hath influence upon us: and now nothing 
fee ms left, but to hold our nature to be fo framed as to 
be fufceptible of fuch influence. And fuppofing it pur- 
pofely fo framed, it will not be difficult to find out feve- 
ral important final caufes. That the power of cuftom 
is a happy contrivance for our good, cannot have efcaped 
any one who reflects, that bulinefs is our province, and 
pleafure our relaxation only. Now fatiety is neceffary 
•to check exquilite pleafures, which otherwife would en- 
grofs the mind and unqualify us for bufinefs. On the 
other hand, as bufinefs is fometimes painful, and is never 
pleafant beyond moderation, the habitual increafe ot mo¬ 
derate pleafure, and the converfion of pain into pleaiurc, 
■ are admirably contrived for difappointing the malice of 
fortune, and for reconciling us to whatever courfe ol life 
may be our lot: 
How ufe doth breed a habit in a man! 
This fliadowy defert, unfrequented woods, 
.1 better brook than fiouriffiing peopled towns, 
Here I can fit alone, unfeen of any, 
And to the nightingale's complaining notes 
Tune my diftreffes, and record my woes. Shakcfpcarc. 
As the foregoing diftinbtion between intenfe and mo¬ 
derate, hold in pleafure only, every degree of pain being 
foftened by time, cuftom is a catholicon for pain and dil- 
trefs of every fort; and of that regulation the final caufe 
requires no illuftration. Another final caufe of cuftom 
will be highly relifhed by every perfon of humanity, 
and yet has, in a great meafure, been overlooked ; which 
■is, that cuftom hath a greater influence than any other 
known caufe, to put the rich and the poor upon a level: 
weak pleafures, the fliare of the latter, become fortu¬ 
nately ftronger by cuftom ; while voluptuous pleafures, 
the fliare of the former, are continually lofing ground by 
fatiety. Men of fortune, who pod'efs palaces, fumptuous 
gardens, rich fields, enjoy them lefs than paffengers do. 
The goods of fortune are not unequally diftributed ; the 
opulent poffefs what others enjoy. And, indeed, if it be 
the effect of habit, to produce the pain of want in a high 
degree while there is little pleafure in enjoyment, a vo¬ 
luptuous life is of all the lead to be envied. Thofe who 
are habituated to high feeding, eafy vehicles, rich fur¬ 
niture, a crowd of valets, much deference, and flattery, 
enjoy but a fmall fliare of happinefs, while they are ex- 
pofecl to manifold diftreffes. To fuch a man, enflaved 
by eafe and luxury, even the petty inconveniences of tra¬ 
velling, of a rough road, bad weather, or homely fare, 
are ferious evils: lie lofes his tone of mind, turns peevifli, 
and would wreak his refentmen-t even upon the common 
accidents of life. Better far to ufe the goods of fortune 
with moderation: a man w’ho by temperance and acti¬ 
vity hath acquired a hardy conflitution, is, on the one 
hand, guarded againft external accidents ; and, on the 
other, is provided with great variety of enjoyment ever 
at command. 
We fliall clofe this fubjedt with an article more deli¬ 
cate than abftrufe, viz. What authority cuftom ought 
to have over our tafte in the fine arts? One particular is 
certain, that we cheerfully abandon to the authority of 
cuftom things that nature hath left indifferent. It is 
cuftom, not nature, that hath eft-;bli(lied a difference 
between the right hand and the left, fo as to make it 
aukward and difagreeable to ufe the left where the right 
is commonly ufed. The various colours, though they 
affedt us differently, are all of them agreeable in their 
purity : but cuftom has regulated that matter in another 
manner; a black fkin upon a human being, is to us dif¬ 
agreeable ; and a white fkin probably not lefs fo to a 
negro. Thus things, originally indifferent, become agree¬ 
able or difagreeable by the force of cuftom. Nor will 
this be furprifing after the difeovery made above, that 
the original agreeablenefs or difagreeablencfs of an ob- 
jedt, is, by the influence of cuftom, often converted into 
the oppofite quality. Proceeding to matters of tafte, 
Vol. V. No. 290. 
407 
where there is naturally a preference of one thing before 
another; it is certain, in the fivft place, that our faint 
and more delicate feelings are readily fufceptible of a 
bias from cuftom; and therefore that it is no proof of a 
defedtive tafte, to find thefe in fome meafure influenced 
by cuftom : drefs, and the modes of external behaviour, 
are regulated by cuftom in every country; the deep red 
or rouge, with which the ladies cover their cheeks, ap¬ 
pears to them beautiful in fpite of nature ; and they in¬ 
lift that ue cannot altogether be juftified in condemning 
that pradtice, confidering the lawful authority of cuftom, 
or of the fajliion , as it is called: it is told of the people 
who inhabit the fkirts of the Alps facing the north, that 
the fwelling they univerfally have in the neck is to them 
agreeable. So far has cuftom power to change the na¬ 
ture of things, and to make an obiedl originally difagree¬ 
able take on an oppofite appearance. But as to every 
particular that can be denominated proper or improper, 
light or wrong, cuftom has little authority, and ought 
to have none. The principle of duty takes naturally 
place of every other ; and it argues a fhameful weaknels 
or degeneracy of mind, to find it in any cafe fo far fub- 
dued as to fubmit to cuftom. 
CUS'TOM, f. [ confuetudo , Lat.] Inlaw, a claim of 
right not written, but eftablifhed by long ufage, and the 
confent of our anceftors. No law can oblige a free people 
without their confent: fo wherever they confent and ufe 
a certain rule or method as a law, fuch mle gives it 
the power of a law ; and if it is univerfal, then it is com¬ 
mon law : if particular to this or that place, then it is 
cuftom. 3 Salk. 112. As to the rife of cuftoms, when a 
reafonable adt once done was found to be good and bene¬ 
ficial to the people, then they ufed it often, and by fre¬ 
quent repetition of the adt, it became a cuftom ; which 
being continued without interruption time out of mind, 
it obtained the force of a law, to bind the particular 
places, perfons, and things, concerned therein. 
To make a cuftom good in law, the following are ne- 
ceflary requifites. 1. Antiquity. That it have been ufed 
fo long, that the memory of man runneth not to the 
contrary. So that, if any one can fliow the beginning of 
it, within legal memory, that is within any time fince 
the firft year of Richard I. it is no good cuftom. For 
which reafon no cuftom can prevail againft an exprefs adt 
of parliament, fince the ftatute itfelf is a proof of a time 
when fuch a cuftom did not exift. Co. Lit. 113. There¬ 
fore a cuftom that every pound of butter fold in a cer¬ 
tain market, fhould weigh eighteen ounces, is bad; being 
diredtly contrary to 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 26, which di- 
redfs it to contain fixteen ounces only. 2. It mull have 
been continued. Any interruption would caufe a tem¬ 
porary ceafing : the revival gives it a new beginning, 
which will be within time of memory, and thereupon 
the cuftom will be void. But this mult be underftood 
with regard to^an interruption of the right; for an inter¬ 
ruption of the polfeffion only, for ten or twenty years, 
will not deftroy the cuftom. Co. Lit. 1x4. As if the in¬ 
habitants of a parifh have a cuftomary right of watering 
their cattle at a certain pool, the cuftom is not deftroyed, 
though they do not ufe it for ten years; it only becomes 
more difficult to prove: but if the right be any how dif- 
continucd for a day, the cuftom is quite at an end. 3. It 
mu ft have been peaceable, and acquiefced hi; not liib- 
iedt to contention and difj ute. Co. Lit. 1 14. For as cuf¬ 
toms owe their original to common confent, their being 
immemorially disputed, either at law or otherwife, is a 
proof that fuch confent was wanting. 4. Cuftoms mult 
be reafonable; or rather, taken negatively, they mult 
not be unreafonable. Which is not always, as fir Ed¬ 
ward Coke fays, 1 bijl. 6 2, to be underftood of every un¬ 
learned man’s reafon, but of artificial and legal reafon, 
warranted by authority of law. Upon which account a 
cuftom may be good, though the particular reafon of it 
cannot be. affigned; for it fufficeth, if no legal reafon 
can be affigned againft it.' Thus a cuftom in a parifh^ 
6 L that 
