Silas Marner is to a certain extent a historical novel — that is, the setting is a time already past when the book was written, "the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses." However, Eliot is being ironic in saying that the book will express a state of mind "no longer to be found," meaning the distrust of strangers, the extreme provincialism of the villagers of that time. This sentiment is intended to bring home the absurdity of some feelings that are found everywhere, although perhaps not in such extreme form.
The general introduction narrows to certain men who are particularly suspect, the wandering linen weavers. Then it is further narrowed to a concentration on one particular weaver, Silas Marner of Raveloe. Silas is seen through the eyes of the small boys of Raveloe, and the picture is a fearful one. This image tends to identify the reader with the impression already given and held by the local folk, that Silas is an untrustworthy character. Yet the impression is kept indefinite because we have already been shown that the Raveloe view is a faulted one.
Note the image used for the weavers — "remnants of a disinherited race." Silas certainly is one such: he has been literally disinherited, driven out by his people. He is further referred to as "a dead man come to life again." This image will attain the status of a symbol through Silas' frequent fits, which give him the appearance of one dead, and through his long exile from humanity and his reunion through the love of a child.
