On the record
Nature disheartened in each generation the ill-fitted members of each customary group, so deprived them of their full vigour, or, if they were weakly, killed them.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Nature disheartened in each generation the ill-fitted members of each customary group, so deprived them of their full…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot reflects on the natural selection of societal members in relation to their fitness and vigor.
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More from Walter Bagehot
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.
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
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.
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