On the record
The conscious end of early societies was not at all, or scarcely at all, the protection of life and property, as it was assumed to be by the eighteenth-century theory of government.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The conscious end of early societies was not at all, or scarcely at all, the protection of life and property, as it was…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot challenges the notion that early societies primarily aimed to protect life and property, as suggested by 18th-century theories.
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More from Walter Bagehot
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
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.
Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.
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.
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