The worst families are those in which the members never really speak their minds to one another; they maintain an atmosphere of unreality, and every one always lives in an atmosphere of suppressed ill-feeling.
Bagehot reflects on the detrimental effects of poor communication within families, drawing a parallel to society.
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If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.
No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.
All savage religions are full of superstitions founded on luck.
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