Note 1697 — XXI THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITION AND HEREDITY

Wallas, Great Society, p. 80. ‘In a settled and traditional society custom is of such overwhelming weight that a law can only act in accordance with it; a sudden change in the machinery of government would break down of itself—nay, in such a society laws can hardly be passed save those that the development of tradition demands’ (Belloc, Life of Danton, p. 142).