A doctrinaire in society was to him an abomination.

The creed of the movement, however, is similar to that promulgated by the doctrinaires of the eighteenth century: that if increasing the size of the governing body automatically increases the variety and significance of government, then only when all the people become the governing class can the collective resources and organizations of the community be consistently utilized for the common weal.

In her poetry George Eliot is much more a doctrinaire than in her novels.