The masses were unknown and undiscovered, or, where they emerged, it was either to protest against some wise reform like Walpole's Excise Scheme, or to become, as in Goldsmith and Cowper and Crabbe, the object of half-pitying poetic sentiment.

How deep-rooted was the notion of aristocratic control was to be shown when France turned into substantial fact Rousseau's demand for freedom.

The protest of Burke against its supposed anarchy swept England like a flame; and only a courageous handful could be found to protest against Pitt's prostitution of her freedom.
Such an age could make but little pretence to discovery; and, indeed, it is most largely absent from its speculation.

In its political ideas this is necessarily and especially the case.

For the State is at no time an unchanging organization; it reflects with singular exactness the dominating ideas of its environment.