Travel can broaden the mind.

It can also suggest to the Britisher that in some respects his countrymen are nothing near so silly as they are supposed to be.

There was a time when I used to sit with my legs stretched out before the English coal fire and listen with respectful attention while people who I thought knew all about it explained to me how wicked and how wasteful were our methods.
All the heat from that fire, they told me, was going up the chimney.

I did not like to answer them that notwithstanding I felt warm and cosy.

I feared it might be merely British stupidity that kept me warm and cosy, not the fire at all.