Walter Bagehot: “A Greek city soon got rid of its kings, for the political sacredness of the monarch would not bear the daily inspection…”

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.

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.

Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.

The lessons are good where its primitive assumptions hold, but may be false where those assumptions fail.