But even in these useful particulars the innate tendency of the human mind to become like what is around it, has effected much: a sluggish Englishman will often catch the eager American look in a few years; an Irishman or even a German will catch it, too, even in all English particulars.
He argues that the human tendency to adapt and imitate can lead to significant changes in character across different cultures.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
But as soon as the House met, Lord Thurlow became the greatest.
Now it is not conceivable that a race of beings with valuable instincts supporting their existence and supplying their wants would need these simple tools.
The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
Other voices in this conversation
