“ — Si quid novisti rectius istis
“ Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum.”—HOR.
In making this contribution to the spirit of advance which is characteristic of our age, the writer is fully aware of the danger of reforms. He remembers “the grace which antiquity can lend” even “to error;” and that by an almost universal instinct the Past is consecrated in the eyes of the Present. Thus, the half-lights and imperfections of our forefathers are clung to with a generous pertinacity. We endeavour to manage with the customs and remedies which sufficed for an early state of society, rather than frame new ones to suit the exigencies of our altered condition. In fact, to speak with Scaliger, we had rather eat acorns with our ancestors than bread with the men of our own generation.