Note 65 — BOOK II.

Nothing is more common than to attribute the combinations of a profound policy to remote ages. If certain persons are to be believed, the men of the eleventh century were sages, and we are barbarians. I feel it just to report the opinion of Montesquieu on this subject: “To transport all the ideas of the age in which we live into remote periods is the most abundant source of error. To those people who wish to render all ancient ages modern, I will repeat what the priests of Egypt said to Solon, ‘Oh Athenians, you are but children.’”—Esprit des Lois, liv. xxx. c. 18.