They were Englishmen and, to them, the decline of other nations was the most natural thing in the world. They belonged to a race blessed with so sensitive an appreciation of its own talents {and so doubtful an opinion of anybody else's} that they would not have been at all surprised to learn that the Venetians themselves had been entirely ignorant of the merits of their own city - until Englishmen had come to tell them it was delightful.
( Susanna Clarke )
[ Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ]
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