On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:14:11 -0600, "Swingman" wrote:

"Upscale" wrote

important then is necessarily important now. During the past 300 years,
population and society have changed significantly.

But, reading any literature from the past thousand years for ample proof,
human nature has not changed one iota.

Currently reading de Balzac's prolific series "Human Comedy", volumes upon
volumes depicting life/characters in France in the early 1800's, like
"Cousin Pons", "Eugenie Gaudet" and/or "Cousin Betty" for starters, ...
English translations abound:

http://www.thalasson.com/gtn/gtnletB.htm#balzacho

All characters are someone you immediately know, or recognize, today ... in
the latter above, you would swear you were reading about Ms. Ciccone ...


Yep. Started reading Gibbon again shortly after the election and it
is actually giving me some hope that we have actually made some
progress.


tom



Regards,

Tom Watson
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/