OF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVED He seems to me to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of custom, who first invented the story of a country-woman who, having accustomed herself to play with and carry a young calf in her arms, and daily continuing to do so as it grew up, obtained this by custom, that, when grown to be a great ox, she was still able to bear it.

For, in truth, custom is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress.

She, by little and little, slily and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority, but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes.

We see her, at every turn, forcing and violating the rules of nature: "Usus efficacissimus rerum omnium magister." ["Custom is the best master of all things." -- Pliny, Nat.

Hist.,xxvi.