Walter Bagehot: “For not only the tendency, but also the power to imitate, is stronger in savages than civilised men.”

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.

No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.

Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.

I do not think I put this too high when I say that a most important if not the most important object of early legislation was the enforcement of LUCKY rites.