Betters from fariS* 4jr 



It was a general prejudice in thofe times, to prefer 

 living in a detached and fcattered manner, to being 

 pent up in cities ; rather to pafs their days in arms than 

 under the beneficent protection of the arts of peace. 

 Many of the means of furtenance, by which thoufands 

 are maintained at prefent, were then entirely unknown. 

 The profeffion of the law and its dependancies, the 

 clergy, the court, with its avenues to covetoufnefs^ 

 ambition, and prodigality, thefe three powers, which 

 in a large metropolis, always mediately or immediately 

 fupport and employ the half of its inhabitants, were 

 then only in part, or not at all in being ; they were 

 but beginning to take up their fettlement. The kings 

 were ftill merely judges, determined flmple affairs by 

 the rules of plain mother-wit, and referred the intricate 

 and perplexed to the event of frngle combat. The 

 priefthood was not fo numerous, yet already mixed 

 very much in temporal matters, for the fake of merit- 

 ing fometliing more than heaven. The nobility lived 

 difperfed in the country ; and, whenever they were 

 obliged to remain a while in town, they wore boots — 

 to diftinguifh themfelves from the yeomanry. The 

 mo nitrous fortunes now acquired by fo many in ma- 

 naging the farms, will hardly allow us to conceive that 

 their predeceflbrs, for example, under Louis le gros, 

 were only ten in number, and that at the two gates of 

 Paris only about twelve livres were taken annually; 

 confequently fcarce fo much as makes a fifth of the 

 monthly pay of an officer of the farms at prefent. By 

 thefe particulars, judge of the fimplicityof manners, but 

 likewife of their rudenefs, of the contentednefs of the 

 inhabitants, but likewife of their poverty. The arts 



that 



