Citation (79)
Ideas die hard. They linger long after their native soil has been supplanted. To their loyal devotees, they case for them never appears entirely hopeless. Every conceivable kind of reinforcement is called upon to save them from utter extinction. Decaying fibres are reanimated by the infusion of new blood. A fresh enchantment is provided for their faded exterior by the liberal application of symbolism and casuistry. In truth, no idea ever becomes so obsolete that it cannot in some form or other, at some time or other, reawaken the enthusiasm which was once its portion. So long as ideas survive in memory, they preserve a hold upon life, however tenuous. Seemingly dead ideas sometimes lead extremely active spectral existences.