Any prejudice whatever will be insurmountable if those who do not
share it themselves truckle to it, and flatter it, and accept it as
a law of nature. I believe, however, that in this case there is in
general, among those who have yet heard of the proposition, no other
hostility to it than the natural and healthy distrust attaching to all
novelties which have not been sufficiently canvassed to make generally
manifest all the pros and cons of the question. The only serious
obstacle is the unfamiliarity: this indeed is a formidable one, for
the imagination much more easily reconciles itself to a great
alteration in substance, than to a very small one in names and
forms. But unfamiliarity is a disadvantage which, when there is any
real value in an idea, it only requires time to remove. And in these
days of discussion, and generally awakened interest in improvement,
what formerly was the work of centuries, often requires only years.
Since the first publication of this Treatise, several adverse
criticisms have been made on Mr. Hare's plan, which indicate at
least a careful examination of it, and a more intelligent
consideration than had previously been given to its pretensions.
This is the natural progress of the discussion of great
improvements. They are at first met by a blind prejudice, and by
arguments to which only blind prejudice could attach any value.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180