On the record
This is society as it grew up in Greece or Italy, as it grows up now in any American or colonial town.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “This is society as it grew up in Greece or Italy, as it grows up now in any American or colonial town.”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot compares the development of society in ancient Greece and Italy to contemporary American and colonial towns.
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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.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
Political philosophy is still more imperfect; it has been framed from observations taken upon regular specimens of politics and States; as to these its teaching is most valuable.
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.
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