And I suppose that in early times, when those bodies did not already contain the records and the traces of endless generations, any new habit would more easily fix its mark on the heritable element, and would be transmitted more easily and more certainly.
Bagehot reflects on how new habits can more easily influence genetic traits in early human societies.
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Now it is not conceivable that a race of beings with valuable instincts supporting their existence and supplying their wants would need these simple tools.
The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.
They say, We reject your Bill for this once or these twice, or even these thrice: but if you keep on sending it up, at last we won't reject it.
Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.
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