“Civilization” was not yet a widely accepted term, but “civility” was. “Civility” was originally a legal term derived from “civil.” In the first edition of his Dictionary in 1755, Dr. Johnson defined “civility” as “a law, act of justice, or judgment which renders a criminal process civil.” But by the latter half of the eighteenth century the modern meaning of “civility,” arising first in France and spreading to Great Britain, had come into use in order to express the advanced stage of enlightenment that Europe had attained. It encompassed “politeness” and “refinement” and all those new manners
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