Walter Bagehot: “The whole mind of a modern savage is, so to say, tattooed over with monstrous images; there is not a smooth place…”

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.

The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

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