On the record
You might as well adopt a father as make a monarchy: the special sentiment belonging to the one is as incapable of voluntary creation as the peculiar affection belonging to the other.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “You might as well adopt a father as make a monarchy: the special sentiment belonging to the one is as incapable of…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot compares the impossibility of creating a monarchy to the natural affection found in familial relationships, emphasizing the need for genuine sentiment.
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More from Walter Bagehot
The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
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