SEKSK OF COMFOKT AND LÜXUKT.

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whereas mail-coaches, for tho rapid conveyance of letters andpassengers, were not established tili the end of the last Cen-tury, the plan having bcen devised by Mr. Palmer of Bath,and the first put into practice at Bristol in 1784—prior towbich the letters were conveyed by one-horse carts, or byboys on horseback.

Now by the above brief chronological catalogue it will beseen, that inost of the appliances of modern civilisation havebeen introduced into Europe within the last three centuries;and it should be noted at the same time, that many of theforegoing social refinements have not even yet become gener-alamong Continental nations. Stockings, for instance, can hardlybe said to be common among the people of France: many amiddle-class French. dandy wearing under bis patent leatherboots nothing but a roll of rags, instead of hose. In Germany,too, the families still sit round a stove with the funnel thrustthrough the wall, the same as our forefathers did five hnndredyears ago. Further, the Chambers, even of the wealthy Ger-mans, remain uncarpeted to this day; preserved fruits, too,are eaten with the meat instead of vegetables, as sugar wasby our ancestors in the year 1500 ; whilst the people in gene-ral hardly understand the use of forks.

Indeed it is admitted by all, that whilst a love of luxuryis distinctive of the French character, comfort is essentiallyan English enjoyment,—foreign Ianguages possessing no equi-valent for the idea: for when the people of other nations havelearnt from us to have a faint notion of the physical and socialdelights included under the term, and have transplanted ourword into their vocabulary, they misapply it so ridiculouslyas to prove to every English mind that they still have nodefinite knowledge either of the feeling or the meaning of theexpression. "Comfortable pastry" we once saw announced

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