he last generation of radicals. Originality
of nature is sure to show itself in more ways than one. The mention of
George Fox's suit of leather, or Pestalozzi's school name, "Harry
Oddity," will at once suggest the remembrance that men who have in great
things diverged from the beaten track, have frequently done so in small
things likewise. Minor illustrations of this truth may be gathered in
almost every circle. We believe that whoever will number up his
reforming and rationalist acquaintances, will find among them more than
the usual proportion of those who in dress or behaviour exhibit some
degree of what the world calls eccentricity.

If it be a fact that men of revolutionary aims in politics or religion,
are commonly revolutionists in custom also, it is not less a fact that
those whose office it is to uphold established arrangements in State and
Church, are also those who most adhere to the social forms and
observances bequeathed to us by past generations. Practices elsewhere
extinct still linger about the headquarters of government. The monarch
still gives assent to Acts of Parliament in the old French of the
Normans; and Norman French terms are still used in law. Wigs, such as
those we see depicted in old portraits, may yet be found on the heads of
judges and barristers. The Beefeaters at the Tower wear the costume of
Henry VIIth's bodyguard. The University dress of the present year varies
but little from that worn soon after the Reformation. The
claret-coloured coat, knee-breeches, lace shirt frills, ruffles, white
silk stockings, and buckled shoes, which once formed the usual attire of
a gentleman, still survive as the court-dress. And it need scarcely be
said that at _levees_ and drawing-rooms, the ceremonies are prescribed
with an exactness, and enforced with a rigour, not elsewhere to be
found.

Can we consider these two series of coincidences as accidental and
unmeaning? Must we not rather conclude that some necessary relationship
obtains between them? Are there not such things as a constitutional
conservatism, and a constitutional tendency to change? Is there not a
class which clings to the old in all things; and another class so in
love with progress as often to mistake novelty for improvement? Do we
not find some men ready to bow to established authority of whatever
kind; while others demand of every such authority its reason, and reject
it if it fails to justify itself? And must not the minds thus cont