Hart's Fence
Chesterton's Fence is (or was) a favorite maxim of a certain type of conservative, and there is a degree of wisdom to it. The basic argument goes that anyone who wishes to change a law or custom should first discover the purpose of the custom, and only on that basis conclude that it ought to be done away with. He gives the example of a fence across the road, which a reformer wishes to remove because it appears to serve no purpose: The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless ...
