The life of a great lady in the eighteenth century is well reflected in the contemporary literature. The satires of poets, the strictures of moralists, the raillery of wits, bring before us the social side of the period in numberless ways. A lady who was not a politician or a blue-stocking killed time by rising late, spending several hours over an elaborate toilette, and preparing herself for the gaieties of the evening. The eighteenth century was in some respects a period of inanition. The formalism which pervaded its literature was seen in another aspect in the social life of the age. There was a general want of the sympathetic spirit. Each circle in society lived shut up within itself, not knowing, nor caring to know, how the rest of the world went on. The narrowness of this attitude told more strongly on the wealthy classes, who had not the stimulus of being obliged to make an effort for the satisfaction of any desire. Social progress, as a recent writer has observed, is not the product of the intellect, but is due to the altruistic spirit.[72] This spirit was asleep in the eighteenth century. In previous centuries there had been more progress with fewer opportunities. During periods of unrest women’s energies were called forth to cope with difficulties which a later civilization smoothed away. Family life, even for great ladies, offered scope, in times past, for the constant exercise of activity in the discharge of functions which lapsed in more refined ages. The leisure which had been painfully won in the progress of civilization the women of the eighteenth century knew not how to use. They dallied with trifles, yawned out of sheer vacuity, invented wants to pass the time, were by turns elated and vapourish, and affected sentiment for the sake of excitement. There were servile imitations of French manners as well as fashions, and neither were successful. Instead of progressing to a wider life, society turned off into a sidewalk of artificiality and moral inertia. END OF VOL. I. PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. _J. D. & Co._ FOOTNOTES [1] The translation runs thus:-- “Much ought woman to be held dear; By her is everybody clothed. Well know I that woman spins and manufactures The cloths with which we dress and cover ourselves, “And gold tissues, and cloth of silk; And therefore say I, wherever I may be, To all those who shall hear this story That they say no ill of womankind.” [2] Warton, “History of English Poetry.” [3] See p. 15. [4] Denton, “England in the Fifteenth Century.” [5] Mrs. A. S. Green, “Town Life in the Fifteenth Century.” [6] Helen Blackburn, “The Legal Status of Women” (_Englishwoman’s Review_, 1883). [7] Gild of St. George, Norwich, founded 1385. [8] Herbert’s “Livery Companies.” [9] “English Gilds”: Worcester Ordinances, 1467. [10] Ashley, “Essay on Woollen Industry.” [11] S. H. Burke, “Monastic Houses of England.”