[Footnote: M.
Jusserand's beautiful book, "La Vie Nomade," was not published till
1884, _i.e.,_ a year after this essay appeared.]
To a thoughtful man watching the signs of the times, it may well have
seemed that the hope for the future of civilization--the hope for any
future, whether of art, science, or religion-lay in the steady growth
of the towns. It might be that the barrier of the Alps would always
limit the influence of Italian cities to Italy and the islands of the
Mediterranean; but for the great towns of what is now Belgium and
Germany what part might not be left for them to play in the history
of the world? In England the towns were as yet insignificant
communities compared with such mighty aggregates of population as
were to be found in Bruges, Antwerp, or Cologne; but even the English
towns _were_ communities, and they were beginning to assert
themselves somewhat loudly while clinging to their chartered rights
with jealous tenacity. Those rights, however, were eminently
exclusive and selfish in their character. The chartered towns were
ruled in all cases by an oligarchy. [Footnote: Stubbs,
"Constitutional History," vol. i. Section 131.] The increase in the
population brought wealth to a class, the class of privileged
traders, associated into guilds, who kept their several
_mysteries_ to themselves by vigilant measures of protection.
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