TONO-BUNGAY

by H.G Wells




BOOK THE FIRST

THE DAYS BEFORE TONO-BUNGAY WAS INVENTED




CHAPTER THE FIRST

OF BLADESOVER HOUSE, AND MY MOTHER; AND THE CONSTITUTION OF SOCIETY


I

Most people in this world seem to live "in character"; they have a
beginning, a middle and an end, and the three are congruous one with
another and true to the rules of their type. You can speak of them as
being of this sort of people or that. They are, as theatrical people
say, no more (and no less) than "character actors." They have a class,
they have a place, they know what is becoming in them and what is due to
them, and their proper size of tombstone tells at last how properly they
have played the part. But there is also another kind of life that is not
so much living as a miscellaneous tasting of life. One gets hit by some