‘There has in truth been a great change in the predominant occupations of the ruling part of mankind’, writes Walter Bagehot: ‘formerly, they passed their time either in exciting action or in inanimate repose. A feudal baron had nothing between war and the chase—keenly animating things both—and what was called “inglorious ease”. Modern life is scanty in excitements, but incessant in quiet action.’
The Bourgeois: Between...
