On the record
It cannot yet tell us our first ancestor, but it can tell us much of an ancestor very high up in the line of descent.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “It cannot yet tell us our first ancestor, but it can tell us much of an ancestor very high up in the line of descent.”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot highlights that while we cannot identify our first ancestor, we can learn about those higher up in the evolutionary line.
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More from Walter Bagehot
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
Perhaps such powers as these are what a wise man would most seek to exercise and least fear to possess.
In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.
If the above reasoning be sound, compulsory constituencies are necessary, voluntary constituencies destructive; the optional transferability of votes is not a salutary aid, but a ruinous innovation.
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