The only subjects which can be first submitted, or which till a very late age of civilisation can be submitted to discussion in the community, are the questions involving the visible and pressing interests of the community; they are political questions of high and urgent import.
Bagehot identifies that only pressing political questions can be openly discussed in early civilization.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated.
He had seen that LEISURE is the great need of early societies, and slaves only can give men leisure.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
But, above all things, they were frightened of 'the world;' the spectacle of nature filled them with awe and dread.
Other voices in this conversation
