The effort which we are making is to compress into one or two lives the evolution which would naturally take perhaps a hundred lives.

That is not the sort of undertaking in which immediate results are to be expected.

We attempt to uproot an evil habit, and we find it hard work; why?
Because we have indulged in that practice for, perhaps, twenty thousand years; one cannot shake off the custom of twenty thousand years in a day or two.

We have allowed that habit to gain an enormous momentum, and before we can set up a force in the opposite direction we have to overcome that momentum.

That cannot be done in a moment, but it is absolutely certain that it _will_ be done eventually, if we persevere, because the momentum, however strong it may be, is a finite quantity, whereas the power that we can bring to bear against it is the infinite power of the human will, which can make renewed efforts day after day, year after year, even life after life if necessary.
Another great difficulty in our way is the lack of clearness in our thought.