On the record
If anything like this had happened in antiquity, the classical moralists would have been sure to muse over it; for it is just the large solemn kind of fact that suited them.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “If anything like this had happened in antiquity, the classical moralists would have been sure to muse over it; for it is…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot suggests that classical moralists would have pondered significant historical events that went unrecorded.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
Political philosophy is still more imperfect; it has been framed from observations taken upon regular specimens of politics and States; as to these its teaching is most valuable.
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.
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.
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
Other voices in this conversation
