In order to realize the difficulty which such a radical change in
any one feature of the conventional scheme of life would involve,
it is only necessary to suggest the suppression of the monogamic
family, or of the agnatic system of consanguinity, or of private
property, or of the theistic faith, in any country of the Western
civilization; or suppose the suppression of ancestor worship in
China, or of the caste system in india, or of slavery in Africa,
or the establishment of equality of the sexes in Mohammedan
countries. It needs no argument to show that the derangement of
the general structure of conventionalities in any of these cases
would be very considerable. In order to effect such an innovation
a very far-reaching alteration of men's habits of thought would
be involved also at other points of the scheme than the one
immediately in question. The aversion to any such innovation
amounts to a shrinking from an essentially alien scheme of life.
The revulsion felt by good people at any proposed departure from
the accepted methods of life is a familiar fact of everyday
experience. It is not unusual to hear those persons who dispense
salutary advice and admonition to the community express
themselves forcibly upon the far-reaching pernicious effects
which the community would suffer from such relatively slight
changes as the disestablishment of the Anglican Church, an
increased facility of divorce, adoption of female suffrage,
prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating
beverages, abolition or restriction of inheritances, etc.
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