On the record
You cannot trace the roots of an old perfect system variously maimed and variously dying; you cannot find it, as you find the trace of the Latin language in the mediaeval dialects.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “You cannot trace the roots of an old perfect system variously maimed and variously dying; you cannot find it, as you…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot discusses the challenges of tracing the origins of complex systems in society.
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He could have found the truth as a statesman just as he found it when a judge; but he never did find it.
The whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
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They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
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