Walter Bagehot: “The higher world, as it looks from without, is a stage on which the…”

On the record

The higher world, as it looks from without, is a stage on which the actors walk their parts much better than the spectators can.

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Walter Bagehot

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Bagehot suggests that the elite perform their roles on the societal stage far better than the average spectator can appreciate.

More from Walter Bagehot

But, above all things, they were frightened of 'the world;' the spectacle of nature filled them with awe and dread.

He had seen that LEISURE is the great need of early societies, and slaves only can give men leisure.

In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.

There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.

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Walter Bagehot: “The higher world, as it looks from without, is a stage on which the actors walk their parts much better than the…”