Copy 1, Volume 1

The history of civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution / By G. Guizot. Translated by William Hazlitt.

  • François Guizot
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution / By G. Guizot. Translated by William Hazlitt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I shall take care here not to fall into pure philosophy; not to lay down some ratiocinative principle, and then deduce from it the nature of civilization as a result; there would be many chances of error in this method. And here, again, we have a fact to verify and describe. For a long period, and in many countries, the word civiliza- tion has been in use; people have attached to the word ideas more or less clear, more or less comprehensive; but there it is in use, and those who use it, attach some meaning or other to it. It is the general, human, popular meaning of this word that we must study. There is almost always in the usual acceptation of the most general terms, more accuracy than in the definitions, apparently more strict, more precise, of science. It is common sense which gives to words their ordi- nary signification, and common sense is the characteristic of humanity. The ordinary signification of a word is formed by gradual progress, and in the constant presence of facts; so that when a fact presents itself which seems to come within the meaning of a known term, it is received into it, as it were, naturally; the signification of the term extends itself, expands, and by degrees, the various facts, the various ideas which from the nature of the things themselves men should include under this word, are included. When the meaning of a word, on the other hand, is deter- mined by science, this determination, the work of one indi- vidual, or of a small number of individuals, takes place under the influence of some particular fact which has struck upon the mind. Thus scientific definitions are, in general, much more narrow, and, hence, much less accurate, much less true, at bottom, than the popular meanings of the terms. In studying as a fact the meaning of the word civilization, in investigating all the ideas which are comprised within it, according to the common sense of mankind, we shall make a much greater progress towards a knowledge of the fact itself, than by attempting to give it ourselves a scientific definition, however more clear and precise the latter might appear at first. I will commence this investigation by endeavouring to place before you some hypotheses: 1 will describe a certain number of states of society, and we will then inquire whether general instinct would recognise in them the condition of
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