All that England has been since lay there.

But changes of which we know nothing had long before the time at which our history opens grouped these little commonwealths together in larger communities, whether we name them Tribe, People, or Folk.

The ties of race and kindred were no doubt drawn tighter by the needs of war.

The organization of each Folk, as such, sprang in all likelihood mainly from war, from a common greed of conquest, a common need of defence.

Its form at any rate was wholly military.