Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London From the Roman Invasion to the Year 1700 (Volume 3); Including the Origin of British Society, Customs ... Superstition, Dresses, and Amusements of the - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811. Excerpt: ... CHAP. VI. ILLUSTRATIONS Or THE CHANGES IN OtTR LANGUAGE, LITERARY CUSTOMS, AND GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT IN STYLE AND VERSIFICATION. The history of Learning or of Literature in England cannot be enlarged upon in a work like the present; as the subject requires volumes, and I can afford it only a chapter. The Druids were undoubtedly a sagacious set of men, and possessed more knowledge than the most improved of their countrymen; but it seems absurd to speak of their learning in the present acceptation of the term: the reveries of men little better than Savages, who could know nothing but by tradition, without the means of reading, and unable to write, may have had academies or schools; and precious indeed was the philosophy and arts taught in them. To enlarge further appears wholly unnecessary. Individuals endowed with strong natural powers of discrimination were as liberally scattered throughout the general population then as at any later later period. Those viewed causes and effects in a true light; but inventions and systems, calculated to advance ideas, were unknown, and it required many concurring circumstances to introduce them. It is obvious, that as Rome was the seat or Learning when its armies secured a footing on this Island, we are indebted to Italy for that blessing, which, undergoing numberless mutations, became at length greatly, though not sufficiently, encouraged, producing thousands of persons whose names are an honour to this nation, and would equally honour that of any other in Europe. Latin and French (the former barbarous and incorrect) were the two languages in which the learned preferred to convey their knowledge to each other. The English partaking of both, and originating with the Saxon, was for a long time consigned to the illiterate mas...