On the record
Courts and aristocracies have the great quality which rules the multitude, though philosophers can see nothing in it--visibility.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Courts and aristocracies have the great quality which rules the multitude, though philosophers can see nothing in…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot argues that courts and aristocracies possess a unique visibility that influences the masses, despite philosophical critiques.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.
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.
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.
Other voices in this conversation
