One day he would read a book of antiquated philosophy, and the next day one that was ultra-modern, so that his head would be whirling with the conflict and contradiction of ideas.

It was the same with the economists.

On the one shelf at the library he found Karl Marx, Ricardo, Adam Smith, and Mill, and the abstruse formulas of the one gave no clew that the ideas of another were obsolete.

He was bewildered, and yet he wanted to know.

He had become interested, in a day, in economics, industry, and politics.