The sort of originality which slavery gives is of the first practical advantage in early communities; and the repose it gives is a great artistic advantage when they come to be described in history.
Bagehot posits that slavery can lead to practical originality and artistic advantages in early societies.
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More from Walter Bagehot
That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.
It is absurd to choose by contested party election an impartial chooser of Ministers.
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
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