Even some very high races, as the French and the Irish, seem in troubled times hardly to be stable at all, but to be carried everywhere as the passions of the moment and the ideas generated at the hour may determine.
Bagehot reflects on the instability of certain national characters during tumultuous times.
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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
But all men heed great results, and a change of Government is a great result.
All savage religions are full of superstitions founded on luck.
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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