Eighteenth century England was certainly full of vigor. Yet perhaps the essential quality required to be civilized is a deep sense of permanence, an escape from the immediate world. It is the feeling that, as the art historian Kenneth Clarke puts it, "in space and time one consciously looks forward and looks back."
十八世紀的英國元氣十足、精力充沛，但「文明人」所需要的氣質，毋寧是一種更深沈的永恆感，一種跳脫當下現世、如藝術史家克拉克所謂的「在時空中有意識的瞻前顧後」。