At least
these rebellions never make martyrs or heroes. Dr. Mary Walker, who wore
men's clothes, was a heroine no doubt, but never achieved martyrdom.

So far as ceremonial government finds expression in a code it is
etiquette, social ritual, form. We do not realize how powerful an
influence social form is. There are breaches of etiquette that any
ordinary human being would rather die than be guilty of.

We often speak of social usages and the dictates of fashion as if they
were imposed by public opinion. This is not true, if we are to use
public opinion in the narrower sense. Social usages are not matters of
opinion; they are matters of custom. They are fixed in habits. They are
not matters of reflection, but of impulse. They are parts of ourselves.

There is an intimate relation between public opinion and social customs
or the mores, as Sumner calls them. But there is this difference: Public
opinion fluctuates. It wobbles. Social customs, the mores, change
slowly. Prohibition was long in coming; but the custom of drinking has
not disappeared. The mores change slowly; but they change _in one
direction_ and they change _steadily_. Mores change as fashion does; as
language does; by a law of their own.

Fashions must change. It is in their nature to do so. As the existing
thing loses its novelty it is no longer stimulating; no longer
interesting. It is no longer the fashion.

What fashion demands is not something new; but something different. It
demands the old in a new and stimulating form. Every woman who is up
with the fashion wants to be in the fashion; but she desires to be
something different from everyone else, especially from her best friend.

Language changes in response to the same motives and according to the
same law. We are constantly seeking new metaphors for old ideas;
constantly using old metaphors to express new ideas. Consider the way
that slang grows!

There is a fashion or a trend in public opinion. A. V. Dicey, in his
volume on _Law and Opinion in England_, points out that there has been a
constant tendency, for a hundred years, in English legislation, from
individualism to collectivism. This does not mean that public opinion
has changed constantly in one direction. There have been, as he says,
"cross currents." Public opinion has veered, but the changes in the
mores have been steadily in one direction.

There has been a change in the fundamental attitudes. This change has
taken place in resp