V

THE FUTURE

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our life are envisaged as Dinosaurs whomliteral extinction is awaiting just ahead. Thecontrast comes from the failure of our ideas, ourconventions, our prejudices to keep up with thepace of material change. Our environmentmoves too much faster than we do. The wallsof our travelling compartment are bumping ourheads. Unless we hustle, the traffic will run usdown. Conservatism is no better than suicide.Woe to our Dinosaurs!

This is one aspect. We stand still at ourperil. Time flies. But there is another aspectof the same thing—and this is where Clissoldcomes in. What a bore for the modern man,whose mind in his active career moves with thetimes, to stand still in his observances and wayof life 1 What a bore are the feasts and celebra-tions with which London crowns success 1 Whata bore to go through the social contortionswhich have lost significance and conventionalpleasures which no longer please! The con-trast between the exuberant, constructiveactivity of a prince of modern commerce andthe lack of an appropriate environment for himout of office hours is acute. Moreover, thereare wide stretches in the career of money-making which are entirely barren and non-constructive. There is a fine passage in thefirst volume about the profound, ultimateboredom of City men. Clissold’s father, thecompany promoter and speculator, falls firstinto megalomania and then into fraud, becausehe is bored. Let us, therefore, mould with