I believe that the progress of experimental science, the free intercourse of nation with nation, the unrestricted influx of commodities from countrie… - Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

It is now time for us to pay a decent, a rational, a manly reverence to our ancestors, not by superstitiously adhering to what they, in other circumstances, did, but by doing what they, in our circumstances, would have done.

In every age everybody knows that up to his own time, progressive improvement has been taking place; nobody seems to reckon on any improvement in the next generation. We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who say society has reached a turning point – that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. ... On what principle is it that with nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?

We understand the expediency of keeping the functions of cook and coachman distinct. The dinner will he better dressed, and the horses better managed.