gn
products; the coarse drinks of the North were supplanted by the delicate
wines of the South. Ice-houses were constructed. The bolting of flour,
introduced at the windmills, had given whiter and finer bread. By
degrees things that had been rarities became common--Indian-corn, the
potato, the turkey, and, conspicuous in the long list, tobacco. Forks,
an Italian invention, displaced the filthy use of the fingers. It may be
said that the diet of civilized men now underwent a radical change. Tea
came from China, coffee from Arabia, the use of sugar from India, and
these to no insignificant degree supplanted fermented liquors. Carpets
replaced on the floors the layer of straw; in the chambers
there appeared better beds, in the wardrobes cleaner and more
frequently-changed clothing. In many towns the aqueduct was substituted
for the public fountain and the street-pump. Ceilings which in the old
days would have been dingy with soot and dirt, were now decorated with
ornamental frescoes. Baths were more commonly resorted to; there was
less need to use perfumery for the concealment of personal odors.
An increasing taste for the innocent pleasures of horticulture
was manifested, by the introduction of many foreign flowers in the
gardens--the tuberose, the auricula, the crown imperial, the Persian
lily, the ranunculus, and African marigolds. In the streets there
appeared sedans, then close carriages, and at length hackney-coaches.

Among the dull rustics mechanical improvements forced their way, and
gradually attained, in the implements for ploughing, sowing, mowing,
reaping, thrashing, the perfection of our own times.

MERCANTILE INVENTIONS. It began to be recognized, in spite of the
preaching of the mendicant orders, that poverty is the source of crime,
the obstruction to knowledge; that the pursuit of riches by commerce is
far better than the acquisition of power by war. For, though it may
be true, as Montesquieu says, that, while commerce unites nations, it
antagonizes individuals, and makes a traffic of morality, it alone can
give unity to the world; its dream, its hope, is universal peace.

MEDICAL IMPROVEMENTS. Though, instead of a few pages, it would require
volumes to record adequately the ameliorations that took place in
domestic and social life after science began to exert its beneficent
influences, and inventive talent came to the aid of industry, there
are some things which cannot be passed in silence. From the por