ses. The attempt was in every way a failure. It may well be doubted if
any society ever existed of which the books referred to were a
description, and the prescriptions were found ill adapted to
seventeenth-century facts. The mores made by any age for itself are good
and right for that age, but it follows that they can suit another age
only to a very limited extent.

+99. What changes are possible.+ All these cases go to show that changes
which run with the mores are easily brought about, but that changes
which are opposed to the mores require long and patient effort, if they
are possible at all. The ruling clique can use force to warp the mores
towards some result which they have selected, especially if they bring
their effort to bear on the ritual, not on the dogmas, and if they are
contented to go slowly. The church has won great results in this way,
and by so doing has created a belief that religion, or ideas, or
institutions, make mores. The leading classes, no matter by what
standard they are selected, can lead by example, which always affects
ritual. An aristocracy acts in this way. It suggests standards of
elegance, refinement, and nobility, and the usages of good manners,
from generation to generation, are such as have spread from the
aristocracy to other classes. Such influences are unspoken, unconscious,
unintentional. If we admit that it is possible and right for some to
undertake to mold the mores of others, of set purpose, we see that the
limits within which any such effort can succeed are very narrow, and the
methods by which it can operate are strictly defined. The favorite
methods of our time are legislation and preaching. These methods fail
because they do not affect ritual, and because they always aim at great
results in a short time. Above all, we can judge of the amount of
serious attention which is due to plans for "reorganizing society," to
get rid of alleged errors and inconveniences in it. We might as well
plan to reorganize our globe by redistributing the elements in it.

+100. Dissent from the mores; group orthodoxy.+ Since it appears that
the old mores are mischievous if they last beyond the duration of the
conditions and needs to which they were adapted, and that constant,
gradual, smooth, and easy readjustment is the course of things which is
conducive to healthful life, it follows that free and rational criticism
of traditional mores is essential to societal welfare. We have seen that
the