Great communities are like great mountains--they have in them the primary, secondary, and tertiary strata of human progress; the characteristics of the lower regions resemble the life of old times rather than the present life of the higher regions.
Bagehot compares societal development to geological strata, emphasizing the layers of progress in communities.
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More from Walter Bagehot
If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.
The nation then selected the English policy, but the Crown chose the English Ministers.
The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.
They are above corruption because they are the corruptors.
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