Domestic Everyday Life, and Manners and Customs in this Country, from the Earliest Period to the end of the Eighteenth Century

Extract

In my former paper I endeavoured to describe the condition of the people at the earliest period with which we are acquainted, and the effect, upon their civilisation produced by the Roman invasion, through the intercourse consequently established between Great Britain and Rome, at that time the grand centre and source of art and civilisation. The darkest period in our national history has now been passed through. Two causes mainly appear to me, in the first instance, to further the progress of civilisation among a people: The intercourse of a barbarous nation with foreigners who are more civilised than the former; The growing intelligence of the natives them-selves, whose capacities are thus stimulated, and their energies roused. Many other causes, no doubt, contribute in turn to the further advancement and development of civilisation, such as the institutions which spring up, and the pursuits that are followed, in any nation. Nevertheless, these two main causes to which I have particularly alluded, appear to me to be the primary elements, and are what first contribute to set the machine in motion.