So the conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who
proposes it – perhaps as much more valuable as roots are more vital than
grafts. It is good that new ideas should be heard, for the sake of the few that
can be used; but it is also good that new ideas should be compelled to go
through the mill of objection, opposition, and contumely; this is the trial
heat which innovations must survive before being allowed to enter the
human race. It is good that the old should resist the young, and that the
young should prod the old; out of this tension, as out of the strife of the
sexes and the classes, comes a creative tensile strength, a stimulated
development, a secret and basic unity and movement of the whole.
