The common belief that it is impossible (or, if not impossible, then so unpromising as to be not worth while
attempting) to elicit explanatory general principles from what is recognized to be conservative conduct is not one
that I share. It may be true that conservative conduct does not readily provoke articulation in the idiom of
general idea, and that consequently there has been a certain reluctance to undertake this kind of elucidation;
but it is not to be presumed that conservative conduct is less eligible than any other for this sort of interpretation,
for what it is worth. Nevertheless, this is not the enterprise I propose to engage in here. My theme is not a creed
or a doctrine, but a disposition. To be conservative is to be disposed to think and behave in certain manners; it
is to prefer certain kinds of conduct and certain conditions of human circumstances to others; it is to be disposed
to make certain kinds of choices. And my design here is to construe this disposition as it appears in
contemporary character, rather than to transpose it into the idiom of general principles.