ABSTRACT
The only constant in human existence is change. Perhaps it is this paradox that underlies our reverence for the apparently ‘unchanging’. The old and historic appears to have some special value not related to the quality of what it is, but the fact that it has simply had a lengthy physical existence. Permanency is an attribute which many people perceive as desirable in all our worthy institutions, be they cultural, economic, political or spiritual. Though the new may be of passing interest, it is commonly felt that what is of real value will have ‘passed the test of time’ — though time is a peculiarly shifting measure by which to test anything.
