34 ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN 
rope, in some to controul or share it, have at- 
tracted, comparatively, little attention. Yet,if we 
can withdraw ourselves from the illusion created 
by baronial pomp and the romantic splendour 
of chivalry, and estimate the share which each 
order has borne in the improvement of social 
institutions, we shall find the pre-eminence to 
belong to the third estate, of which the inhabi- 
tants of cities form the most important element. 
Collected in cities, men enlighten each other by 
the ready communication of ideas; they com- 
bine their forces for a common object, and en- 
thusiasm kindled by sympathy prompts them to 
undertakings for the extension of their liberties, 
which would have appeared too hazardous, if 
coldly calculated in solitude. 
From the end of the eleventh century down- 
wards, the influence of cities in promoting the 
increase of wealth, liberty and knowledge, is 
sufficiently conspicuous, and historians have 
generally found it more interesting to trace this 
influence into the great political changes which 
resulted from it, than to enquire how the cities 
had become what they then were. It is indeed 
an obscure and unpromising inquiry: from the 
time of Charlemagne to that of the crusades is 
the darkest period of the middle ages, and little 
