l civilised countries, are
accounted final; nay, under the Old-Roman name of _Mores_, are
accounted _Morality_, Virtue, Laws of God Himself. Such, I assure
thee, not a few of them are; such almost all of them once were. And
greatly do I respect the solid character,--a blockhead, thou wilt say;
yes, but a well-conditioned blockhead, and the best-conditioned,--who
esteems all 'Customs once solemnly acknowledged' to be ultimate,
divine, and the rule for a man to walk by, nothing doubting, not
inquiring farther. What a time of it had we, were all men's life and
trade still, in all parts of it, a problem, a hypothetic seeking, to
be settled by painful Logics and Baconian Inductions! The Clerk in
Eastcheap cannot spend the day in verifying his Ready-Reckoner; he
must take it as verified, true and indisputable; or his Book-keeping
by Double Entry will stand still. "Where is your Posted Ledger?" asks
the Master at night.--"Sir," answers the other, "I was verifying my
Ready-Reckoner, and find some errors. The Ledger is--!"--Fancy such a
thing!

True, all turns on your Ready-Reckoner being moderately
correct,--being _not_ insupportably incorrect! A Ready-Reckoner which
has led to distinct entries in your Ledger such as these: '_Creditor_
an English People by fifteen hundred years of good Labour; and
_Debtor_ to lodging in enchanted Poor-Law Bastilles: _Creditor_ by
conquering the largest Empire the Sun ever saw; and _Debtor_ to
Donothingism and "Impossible" written on all departments of the
government thereof: _Creditor_ by mountains of gold ingots earned; and
_Debtor_ to No Bread purchasable by them:'--_such_ Ready-Reckoner,
methinks, is beginning to be suspect; nay is ceasing, and has ceased,
to be suspect! Such Ready-Reckoner is a Solecism in Eastcheap; and
must, whatever be the press of business, and will and shall be
rectified a little. Business can go on no longer with _it_. The most
Conservative English People, thickest-skinned, most patient of
Peoples, is driven alike by its Logic and its Unlogic, by things
'spoken,' and by things not yet spoken or very speakable, but only
felt and very unendurable, to be wholly a Reforming People. Their
Life, as it is, has ceased to be longer possible for them.

Urge not this noble silent People; rouse not the Berserkir rage that
lies in them! Do you know their Cromwells, Hampdens, their Pyms and
Bradshaws? Men very peaceable, but men that can be made very terrible!
Men who, like thei