584. Judgment is beclouded by the atmosphere formed by the mores. Education. Witch persecutions are another case of the extent to which familiarity with the customs prevents any rational judgment of phenomena of experience and observation. How was it possible that men did not see the baseness and folly of their acts? The answer is that the ideas of demonism were a part of the mental outfit of the period. The laws were traditions from generations which had drawn deductions from the doctrines of demonism and had applied them in criminal practice. The legal procedure was familiar and corresponded to the horror of crimes and criminals, of which witchcraft and witches were the worst. The mores formed a moral and civil atmosphere through which everything was seen, and rational judgment was made impossible. It cannot be doubted that, at any time, all ethical judgments are made through the atmosphere of the mores of the time. It is they which tell us what is right. It is only by high mental discipline that we can be trained to rise above that atmosphere and form rational judgments on current cases. This mental independence and ethical power are the highest products of education. They are also perilous. Our worst cranks are those who get the independence and power, but cannot stand alone and form correct judgments outside of the mores of the time and place. It must be remembered that the mores sometimes becloud the judgment, but they more often guide it.
[1834] See secs. [184]-188, on Fashion.
[1835] Höf. Leben, I, 37.
[1836] Scherr, Kulturgesch., 377.
[1837] Lacroix, Moyen Age, I, 430.
[1838] Schultz, D. L., 160.
[1839] Lecky, Rationalism, I, 332.
[1840] Schultz, Höf. Leben, II, 448.
[1841] Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne.
[1842] Inquis., II, 228.