We fix our attention on the best specimens of Athenian culture--on the books which have descended to us, and we forget that the corporate action of the Athenian people at various critical junctures exhibited the most gross superstition.
Bagehot critiques the tendency to focus only on the achievements of Athenian culture while ignoring its superstitious aspects.
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If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.
He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
All savage religions are full of superstitions founded on luck.
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