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  • The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.

    Edward Gibbon (1846). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.106