William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

[287] down. All works of peace had fallen back. All noble efforts had relaxed. There is no leveller like war; and the levelling done by war is always downward, crushing the higher and the lower things together; as in the Holy City, in the hurry of defence, the porphyry shaft and ornamented frieze were cast in to a common wall, along with clay and pebbles, earth and unhewn stones.

Love of drink, a habit of the young Norse gods, had grown under the hardships and privations of war. A habit of cursing and swearing, also a custom of the young Norse gods, had crept, under the same malific influence, into every colony, almost into every household. Education, once the first thought in every town, had fallen into neglect; and teachers and professors, finding no field for their abilities in the Republic, sailed to Europe, where their talents might hope to meet with some reward. Personal vice had grown into a fashion, and the fine ladies of Boston and Richmond thought it an accomplishment to prattle in the jargon of Voltaire.

“ The spirit of freedom,” said Washington, seven years after the Declaration of Independence, “has long since subsided, and every selfish passion has ”