On the record
Here physical causes do not create the moral, but moral create the physical; here the beginning is by the higher energy, the conservation and propagation only by the lower.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Here physical causes do not create the moral, but moral create the physical; here the beginning is by the higher energy…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot argues that moral forces shape physical realities, reversing common assumptions.
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I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
It is natural that those who by special and admirable culture have come to look at all things upon the artistic side, should start back from these queer peculiarities.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.
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