Walter Bagehot: “No doubt countries can be imagined in which the mass of the electors would be thoroughly competent to form good…”

The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

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.

The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.

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.