Buch 
A treatise on the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland / by J. H. H. Holmes
Entstehung
Seite
158
JPEG-Download
 

158

COAL MINES OF

tion or plan for the welfare and happinessof society, than its surmounting the steeps ofprejudice and private interest.

This generally requires a considerable lapseof time, as there are many old establishedcustoms to overcome, exclusive of the changeof habits, which to a certain extent must ne-cessarily be effected. This can only be doneby perseverance, and by illuminating the sys-tem, and the evidence which supports it, in asplain and intelligible a manner as possible,without confounding by intricacy, or losingthe spirit by simplicity.

Generated as prejudice is by habit, the al-teration of the latter naturally lessens theforce of the other; and by conveying thesimple language of demonstration and fact tothe minds of men, according to their capacityof judgment, impresses upon their understand-ing the superior bias of conviction.

It certainly appears extraordinary that per-sons should not only neglect to avail them-selves of invention on the first discovery of itsutility, but that they should systematicallyoppose its introduction. This may be attri-buted in a great measure to the interferenceof some private interest, or some local altera-tion which would be effected, and which long

6