Conquest improved mankind by the intermixture of strengths; the armed truce, which was then called peace, improved them by the competition of training and the consequent creation of new power.
Bagehot posits that conquest and competition led to the improvement of mankind.
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More from Walter Bagehot
The power of free interchange of ideas being wanting, the ideas themselves were barren.
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
I do not think I put this too high when I say that a most important if not the most important object of early legislation was the enforcement of LUCKY rites.
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