A Comparative View Of The Social Life Of England And France: From The Restoration Of Charles The Second, To The French Revolution

WHILE the great moral principles upon which aW social order in an advanced state of civilisa tion is necessarily formed, remain at all times nearly the same, the modifications imposed by law, or induced by custom, in different eras of society - the duties exacted by the one, and the licence often obtained by the other - produce occasional, accidental ebbs and flows in the morals as well as in the manners of private life. These form an interesting and not unuseful subject of contemplation to suclz minds as, in society, by an intimate acquaintance with their contemporaries, have been enlightened, not con tracted who have learnt, in and from the world, indulgence to its follies without participation in its thoughtlessness, and a severe adherence to general principles, with great lenity to individual deviations from them.muse the leisure of those whose more enlarged and more profound knowledge ofthe times recorded gives them an interest in their social details should it assist in suggesting those associations of ideas always an agreeable exercise to the human mind, the aim of the Author is fi lfilled. A Second Volume, attempting to record the changes produced, and the altered spirit prevailing in both countries subsequent to the French Revolution, might perhaps prove more interesting, from approaching nearer to our contemporaries...