Walter Bagehot: “Very commonly all the tribe would expect a punishment from the gods if any one of them refrained from what was old, or…”

But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.

I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.

Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.

I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.