The imitative and the persecuting tendencies make all change in early nations a kind of selective conservatism, for the most part keeping what is old, but annexing some new but like practice--an additional turret in the old style.
Bagehot describes how early societies selectively preserve old practices while incorporating new ones.
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I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.
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