On the record
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot points out that while political lessons can be valuable, they may not apply universally due to flawed assumptions.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
It is natural that those who by special and admirable culture have come to look at all things upon the artistic side, should start back from these queer peculiarities.
Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.
Other voices in this conversation
