[139] Lane, Arabian Society, p. 142 sq.
[140] Crawfurd, op. cit. i. 53.
[141] Bergmann, op. cit. ii. 285.
Contrary to what is the case with other duties which men owe to their fellow-creatures, in every progressive society we find hospitality on the wane. In the later days of Greece and Rome it almost dwindled into a survival.[142] In the Middle Ages hospitality was extensively practised by high and low; it was enjoined by the tenets of Chivalry,[143] and the poorer people, also, considered it disgraceful to refuse to share their meals with a needy stranger.[144] However, in the reign of Henry IV., Thomas Occlif complains of the decline of hospitality in England; and in the middle of the Elizabethan age, Archbishop Sandys says that “it is come to pass that hospitality itself is waxen a stranger.”[145] The reasons for this decline are not difficult to find. Increasing intercourse between different communities or different countries not only makes hospitality an intolerable burden, but leads to the establishment of inns, and thus hospitality becomes superfluous. It habituates the people to the sight of strangers, and, in consequence, deprives the stranger of that mystery which surrounds the lonely wanderer in an isolated district whose inhabitants have little communication with the outside world. And, finally, increase of intercourse gives rise to laws which make an individual protector needless, by placing the stranger under the protection of the State.
[142] Becker-Goll, Charikles, ii. 3 sqq. Idem, Gallus, iii. 28 sqq.
[143] Sainte-Palaye, Mémoires sur l’ancienne chevalerie, i. 310.
[144] Wright, Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England during the Middle Ages, p. 329 sqq.
[145] Sandys, Sermons, p. 401.