Life In The Eighteenth Century. INTRODUCTION. The social and political institutions of every country are the outgrowths of that countrys life conditions, except in so far as institutions may be imposed upon a people by an authority outside of themselves. In our country outside authority has never been able thus to impress itself upon the minds and lives of the people. The development of American institutions, American ideas, and American life, has been exclusively from within. Our system, from top to bottom, is the creation of the people who live under it. It is therefore peculiarly well adapted to their needs, and peculiarly an expression of their common thought and aspiration. The men and women who founded the English colonies in America, and the men and women who built those colonies up into great, self-governing commonwealths, were from the beginning men and women in revolt against the life conditions illto which they were born. They were inspired by a determined purpose to...