Of course, our character has other ingredients besides this lust for change (we are not devoid of the impulse to
cherish and preserve), but there can be little doubt about its preeminence. And, in these circumstances, it
seems appropriate that a conservative disposition should appear, not as an intelligible (or even plausible)
alternative to our mainly “progressive” habit of mind, but either as an unfortunate hindrance to the movement
afoot, or as the custodian of the museum in which quaint examples of superseded achievement are preserved
for children to gape at, and as the guardian of what from time to time is considered not yet ripe for destruction,
which we call (ironically enough) the amenities of life.