Any description that I might attempt of the family life at Steventon,
which closed soon after I was born, could be little better than a fancy-
piece. There is no doubt that if we could look into the households of
the clergy and the small gentry of that period, we should see some things
which would seem strange to us, and should miss many more to which we are
accustomed. Every hundred years, and especially a century like the last,
marked by an extraordinary advance in wealth, luxury, and refinement of
taste, as well as in the mechanical arts which embellish our houses, must
produce a great change in their aspect. These changes are always at
work; they are going on now, but so silently that we take no note of
them. Men soon forget the small objects which they leave behind them as
they drift down the stream of life. As Pope says--
Nor does life's stream for observation stay;
It hurries all too fast to mark their way.
Important inventions, such as the applications of steam, gas, and
electricity, may find their places in history; but not so the
alterations, great as they may be, which have taken place in the
appearance of our dining and drawing-rooms.
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