Every member in the throng, every atom in the medley, has his own objects (good or bad), his own purposes (great or petty); his own notions, such as they are, of what is; his own notions, such as they are, of what ought to be.
Bagehot reflects on the diverse motivations and perspectives of individuals within a society.
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The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
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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