The external fabric of life is not a negligible quantity but a real factor.

On the one hand, it is hardly credible that an unromanized folk should adopt so much of Roman things as the British did, and yet remain uninfluenced.

And it is equally incredible that, while it remained unromanized, it should either care or understand how to borrow all the externals of Roman life.

The truth of this was clear to Tacitus in the days when the Romanization of Britain was proceeding.
It may be recognized in the east or in Africa to-day.

Even among the civilized nations of the present age the recent growth of stronger national feelings has been accompanied by a preference for home-products and home-manufactures and a distaste for foreign surroundings..