The savage subjected to a mean superstition, is afraid to walk simply about the world--he cannot do THIS because it is ominous, or he must do THAT because it is lucky, or he cannot do anything at all till the gods have spoken and given him leave to begin.
Bagehot discusses how superstition can limit a person's freedom to navigate the world.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.
In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.
The moderate people of every party must combine to support the Government which, on the whole, suits every party best.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
Other voices in this conversation
