that "gentlemen took snuff in those days almost universally: and a great
deal of expense and variety were often lavished upon a snuff-box. To
take snuff with one another was as much a matter of courtesy as the
lifting of the hat."

[Sidenote: Wine and Profanity.]

The days of prevalent cigar-smoking and tobacco-chewing had not come.
The use of wine and ardent spirits was regarded with less reprobation in
the old society than in the new; profanity, too, was indulged in much
more freely by men of standing and moral profession than now. Thus we
can recognize, in these and in many other things, a progress in morals,
and in greater refinement both of thought, manners, and language, as
well as in the material enginery of civilization.




VII.

THE REVOLUTION.

[Sidenote: Washington as Commander-in-chief.]

George Washington had been assigned to the command-in-chief of the
colonial troops, just before the Battle of Bunker Hill. Thus, at the
very start, wisdom ruled the counsels and Providence guided the action
of our forefathers. The military abilities and lofty patriotism of
Washington could scarcely have been foreseen at the first in all their
breadth and scope; yet he was already known as a soldier of tried