Every individual was born into his class, or, as the popular phrase
went, to "a station to which God had called him," and to question the
fundamental divine nature of class distinctions seemed silly if not
downright blasphemous.
[Sidenote: Dislocation of Society in Eighteenth Century]
Such ideas were practical so long as society was comparatively static
and fixed, but they were endangered as soon as the human world was
conceived of as dynamic and progressive. The development of trade and
industry, as has been emphasized, rapidly increased the numbers,
wealth, and influence of the bourgeoisie, or middle class, and quite
naturally threw the social machine out of gear. The merchants, the
lawyers, the doctors, the professors, the literary men, began to envy
the nobles and clergy, and in turn were envied by the poor townsfolk
and by the downtrodden peasants. With the progress of learning and
study, thoughtful persons of all classes began to doubt whether the old
order of politics and society was best suited to the new conditions and
new relations.
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