...says he, is become the seat of liberty, plenty and letters, flourishing in all arts and refinements of civil life, yet running perhaps the same course...to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of manners: till by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it falls...

...tyranny and the beginning of England's decline and fall. England, the 'happy seat of liberty,' was 'yet running perhaps, the same course, which Rome...morals; till, by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue ... it falls a prey ... to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty . . . sinks gradually...

...'Mistress of the World, the Seat of Arts, Empire and Glory', Britain risks running the same course 'from virtuous Industry to Wealth; from Wealth to Luxury; from Luxury to and Impatience of Discipline and Corruption of Morals', thus sliding into a state of 'Sloth, Ignorance...

...narrative that "trace[s]" the past, present, and future of a Town tainted by uncontrollable luxury "which Rome itself had run before it; from virtuous...Impatience of Discipline and Corruption of Morals, . . . [and to] its original Barbarism" (Enquiry, 74). Rome's historical narrative underwrites Fielding's...