of circumstance, not easily
accounted for, that men who possess that fascination of personality
which makes them firm friends and violent enemies are most liable to be
adversely judged out of that lack of knowledge which is called
prejudice.

There is another form of the error which is found in the business world.
Men of affairs conceive quite irrational dislikes for certain types of
securities or transactions. They are given, perhaps, an excellent offer,
out of which they might make a considerable profit. They turn the matter
down without further consideration. Their ostensible reason is that they
are not accustomed to deal in that particular class of security. Their
real reason for refusing is that they are the victims of their own
environment, and that they have not the intellectual courage or force to
break away from it even when every argument proves that it would be to
their advantage to do so. Their intellects have become musclebound by
habit or tradition.

The fourth and, perhaps, the most violent form of prejudice, outside the
sphere of religion, may be found in politics. Men embrace certain
political conceptions, and, though the whole world breaks into ruins,
and is reconstructed around them, nothing will alter their original
ideas. The Radical says that the Tory does not change his spots, and the
Tory is convinced that a Radical is still a direct emanation of the evil
one. In the middle of these conflicting antagonisms the real road to
national peace, prosperity, and security is missed by those who prefer
prejudice to the lessons which reality teaches. The most infamous case
of all to the unbending partisan is that of a man who has so far
outlived the prejudices of party as to be able to criticise one side
without joining another.

The advantage of prejudice is the preservation of tradition; its
disadvantage is the inability which it brings to an individual or to a
nation to adapt life to the change of circumstance. It is, therefore, at
once both the vice of youth and of age. Youth is prejudiced by
upbringing; age is prejudiced because it cannot adapt itself to the
circumstances of a changing world. But both youth and age can fight by
the power of the human will against the tendencies which steep them in
their own prepossessions.

Youth can say: "I will forget that I was brought up to be a Scotsman
and a Presbyterian, and so prejudiced against all Roman Catholics or
Jews; the world is open to me, I will