Walter Bagehot: “Something happened that looked a little good, on which eager sanguine…”

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Something happened that looked a little good, on which eager sanguine men talked loudly, and common people caught their tone.

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Walter Bagehot

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Bagehot illustrates how initial positive events can create a contagious enthusiasm in society.

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Savages waste away before modern civilisation; they seem to have held their ground before the ancient.

Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.

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Walter Bagehot: “Something happened that looked a little good, on which eager sanguine men talked loudly, and common people caught their…”