They never could have known what to expect; the whole habit of steady but varied anticipation, which makes our minds what they are, must have been wholly foreign to theirs.
Walter Bagehot: “They never could have known what to expect; the whole habit of steady but varied anticipation, which makes our minds…”
Editor's note · Context
This passage illustrates Bagehot's belief that early humans lacked the ability to anticipate events in a structured way, contrasting with modern expectations.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.
The progress of the military art is the most conspicuous, I was about to say the most SHOWY, fact in human history.
They say, We reject your Bill for this once or these twice, or even these thrice: but if you keep on sending it up, at last we won't reject it.





