As a man's family go on muttering in his maturity incorrect phrases derived from a just observation of his early youth, so, in the full activity of an historical constitution, its subjects repeat phrases true in the time of their fathers, and inculcated by those fathers, but now true no longer.
Bagehot compares the outdated phrases used by citizens to the historical context of the British Constitution, illustrating the disconnect over generations.
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In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.
That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
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.
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