Charles Tennant

The People's Blue Book, Taxation As It Is, and As It Ought to Be Charles Tennant

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1862 Excerpt: ... yet they trouble by their unconformity; besides, they are like strangers, more admired, and less favored. All this is true, if time stood still; which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a forward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself which, indeed, innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarcely to be perceived." The truth is,--as observed by Archbishop Whately, in his comments on the text of Lord Bacon,--that, in all the serious and important affairs of life, men are attached to what they have been used to, and this holds good in all departments of life. New medicines, for instance, come into vogue, from time to time, with or without good reason; but a fundamentally new system of medicine, whether right or wrong, is sure to have the strongest prejudices enlisted against it. If, when the celebrated Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, he had, on the ground that people often readily introduced some new medicine, calculated on a favorable reception, or even a fair hearing for his doctrine, which went to establish a fundamental revolution, he would soon have been undeceived by the vehement and general opposition with which he was encountered. And it was the physicians of the highest standing that most opposed Harvey. It was the experienced navigators that most opposed Columbus. It was those most conversant with the management of the Post Office that were the last to approve of the uniform penny-postage. For, the greater any one's experience and skill in his own department, and the more he is entitled to the deference which is proverbially due to each m...