On the record
In this manner politics or discussion broke up the old bonds of custom which were now strangling mankind, though they had once aided and helped it.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “In this manner politics or discussion broke up the old bonds of custom which were now strangling mankind, though they…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot describes how political discourse can disrupt outdated customs that once served society.
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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.
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.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
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