Without being in any way slack in his regimental duties, he performed them as many others did, without the smallest grain of passion, and without any imaginative forecast as to what fruit, if any, there might be to these hours spent in drill and discipline.

He was but one of a very large number who do their work without seriously bothering their heads about its possible meaning or application.

His particular job gave a young man a pleasant position and an easy path to general popularity, given that he was willing to be sociable and amused.

He was extremely ready to be both the one and the other, and there his philosophy of life stopped.
And, indeed, it seemed on this hot July evening that the streets were populated by philosophers like unto himself.

Never had England generally been more prosperous, more secure, more comfortable.