246 A. W. BENN : is invoked to establish its existence. After studying this imposing array of arguments, one feels inclined to exclaim, ' You have convinced me that progress is impossible ! ' Nor would our author be easily brought to admit that he had committed the fallacy of proving too much. By a rapid and brilliant series of parallels he shows or attempts to show that after all there is not much difference between the civilised man and the savage (p. 143). On the whole, however, it may be assumed that a state of civili- sation as much superior to ours as ours is to the condition of the Fuegians or even of the Zulus would constitute a considerable step in advance. And if we are moving towards such a state the cause of the modern reformer is gained. It seems then that a fallacy, or possibly more than one fallacy, must lurk in the argument. To begin with, the force of habit is enormously exaggerated, as also is its antagonism to progress. Granting, what is not true, that individual habits are unchange- able, the habits of a race stand on a different footing, being easily modifiable in the course of transmission from one generation to the next. Such a modification is greatly facilitated by the circum- stance that a complete change of habits must be submitted to three or four times in the course of an ordinary life on going to school, on entering society, on adopting a profession, on marrying. The voluntary acceptance of one change involves many others from which there is no escape. Again, by submitting to a single change, we may be enabled to perform a number of customary actions with greater ease or greater security from interruption. The substitution of railways for stage-coaches involved a great change in the habits of travellers ; but owing to the increased rapidity of locomotion they were enabled to resume their ordinary occupations within a shorter period. So any reform that dimi- nishes the risk of arbitrary government, war, pestilence, famine, crime or other disturbance is so much gain to habits of steady industry. Nay, change itself may become a habit, as we see in the case of those excursions to the sea-side or the mountains annually undertaken by whole families at the cost of much tem- porary inconvenience and discomfort ; the habit of some being to visit a different locality every summer. Among educated people there has grown up a habit of expecting some new invention or discovery to be made at pretty frequent intervals, and some dis- appointment is expressed if they have to wait for it long. With regard to manners, Sir H. Maine is led by his charac- teristic exaltation of arbitrary convention completely to ignore the reasons on which they are founded. To believe him, we feel disgust at what are called bad manners simply because we are unused to them. This is indeed putting the cart before the horse. Good breeding becomes a habit in time ; but it begins with a deliberate preference of certain actions as less repugnant than others to our innate or acquired sensibilities. There are ways of eating which betray complete enslavement to the animal instincts ; there are others associated with an imperfect adjust-
