Page:Logic Taught by Love.djvu/110

106 is, in fact, one of the most essential aids to true Reform and true Progress; for this reason:—Suppose that a reform is urgently needed in some particular. It is usually impossible to say beforehand in what exact mode it can best be made. Some man of genius tries experiments in his own little corner of the church or of society. If he is left alone to observe in peace the results of his attempts, then, after many years, he and those who have watched his career can say with authority which of his experiments were in the right direction, and which have been proved useless and need not be tried again. But if persons in official positions show favour to him at the beginning, it becomes the fashion to imitate him. Numbers do so who have no reason for it except that it is the fashion. The whole thing is made a party-question; and the thinker and those who are working under him become confused by counter-currents of senseless clamour. No chemist could, under similar conditions, conduct experiments in such simple matters as the purification of water or the improvement of cast-iron; far less can reforms in religion, in society, in thought, be organized thus. Moses, the great Reformer, after he had conceived his reform, is said to have retired into almost loneliness for forty years, and got no following till he had had time to mature his plans. And, in order that the people of Israel might be the true leaders in all Reform, he made rules which secure to each new Reformer something of the same isolation and silence; so that his crude attempts and immature conceptions may never be taken up as a mere fashion. Some people think these rules harsh; but they serve very good ends. They secure