[231]See the "Travels of Madame d'Aulnay in Spain," at the end of the seventeenth century. Nothing is more striking than this revolution, if we compare it with the times before Ferdinand the Catholic, namely the reign of Henry IV, the great power of the nobles, and the independence of the towns. Read about this history, Buckle's "History of Civilization," 1867, 3 vols. II. ch. VIII.
[232]Buckle, "History of Civilization," I. ch. VII.
[233]Léonce de Lavergne, "Economie rurale en Angleterre," passim.
[234]De Foe was of the same opinion, and pretended that economy was not an English virtue, and that an Englishman can hardly live with twenty shillings a week, while a Dutchman with the same money becomes wealthy, and leaves his children very well off. An English laborer lives poor and wretchedly with nine shillings a week, whilst a Dutchman lives very comfortably with the same wages.
[235]In familiar language, the father is called in England the "governor"; in France "le banquier."
[236]Let the reader, amongst many others, peruse the sermons of Dr. Arnold, delivered in the school chapel at Rugby.
[237]"The Wide, Wide World," by Elizabeth Wetherell (an American book). See also the novels of Miss Yonge, and chiefly those of George Eliot.