Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/250

 HABIT AND PROGRESS. 249 really new but the revival of some ancient mode. Thus an apparent exception is triumphantly used to prove the rule. Such a method of reasoning looks very- like a vicious circle. The supposed repugnance of human nature to progress was first in- ferred from its adherence to habit and custom ; then, when we show that half the community and that too the half claimed as the more conservative constantly indulges in changes of the most conspicuous kind, we are told that the change is not pro- gress but oscillation. Sir H. Maine refers to the fact that certain figurines discovered at Tanagra represent women draped in a style somewhat resembling the fashions of the present day. Does he suppose that the drapery thus unconsciously revived was any the less unfamiliar to his own countrywomen at the time when it was first introduced among them from its having been worn twenty-two centuries ago by Greek ladies? This would be in- terpreting the " eternal feminine " in an over-literal sense. At any rate most if not all the Radical measures now proposed have their parallels in ancient history, so that on the Tanagra- figurine-principle they ought to be secure from feminine opposition. The truth is that one need only walk down the nearest street with open eyes and ears to be convinced that women are quite capable of accepting an improvement or change call it which- ever you will involving a considerable break in the routine of their daily life. Either an enormous poster setting forth the advantages of somebody's sewing-machine, or the whirring sound of the instrument itself in actual operation, will remind us of a most important revolution in domestic industry, effected to all appearances without exciting the slightest opposition on -the part of the class most interested, forming as it does a large proportion of the female population. Unquestionably the prejudices of women are enlisted, to a greater extent than those of men, on behalf of authoritative methods both in life and thought. But this tendency would, if anything, prepossess them in favour of that more active legislation which the author of Popular Govern- ment tries to exhibit as directly at variance with the conservative spirit of the masses. If there is any force in the foregoing considerations they seem to show that the average European mind entertains no insuper- able or deep-rooted hostility to progress or even to change as such. And from this it follows that the advent of the majority to political power need not necessarily be signalised by the reversal or cessation of that continuous onward march which has hitherto characterised our western civilisation. But there are still more decisive reasons for cherishing such a hope. Had the majority been anti-progressive there are other ways besides parliaments and ballot boxes through which they could have made their will be felt. It is forgotten that each new invention and discovery has been submitted to a plebiscite not the less authoritative from being informal and silent. The discovery can only be established 17