No nation admits of an abstract definition; all nations are beings of many qualities and many sides; no historical event exactly illustrates any one principle; every cause is intertwined and surrounded with a hundred others.
Bagehot argues that the complexity of nations defies simple definitions and principles.
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In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.
The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.
Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.
He had seen that LEISURE is the great need of early societies, and slaves only can give men leisure.
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