Studies in Cola History and Administration c10.6

c10.6

The history of institutions is not so exciting as the study of political history and ‘holds but small temptation to the mind that requires to be tempted to the study of truth.’ It takes considerable effort to comprehend by patient study and reflection the true nature and functions of the different parts of a social mechanism evolved and worked under the stress of ideas much unlike our own. Nothing seems easier than to discover, if one is so minded, in the records of past ages traces of the latest devices in political and social organisation. And the quest for the new in the old sometimes imparts colour and feeling to a task in itself not so attractive.