Not that I have any dislike of rapid movement myself. I enjoy going to a car at ninety miles an hour- So long as I am driving and so......

Not that I have any dislike of rapid movement myself. I enjoy going to a car at ninety miles an hour- So long as I am driving and so long as it is not my car. I adore the machines that hurl you about at Battersea. To dine in London and lunch in New York next day seems to be a most satisfactory experience: I admit it excludes all the real pleasures of travel the sort of fun you get from a country bus in Somerset or Spain but it gives you a superficial sense of drama; it was a sort of excitement our ancestors had to do without, and we might just as well accept it gratefully. No, where speed becomes something unfriendly to me is where the mental activities of our time tend as they naturally do to follow the pace of the machines.

I speak with prejudice because I belong to the tribe of slow thinkers, those who are cursed with 1’esprit Det espaliers: People who light on the most devastating repartee about four hours after the party’s over. I am one of those who are guaranteed to get the lowest marks in any intelligence test because those tests or ail the ones I have come across seem to be designed to measure the speed of your mind more than anything else. Obviously we slow thinkers are terribly handicapped in the business of getting a living. But what I am thinking about just now is not so much the practical use of one’s mind as its use for enjoyment.

(i) What does the author enjoy?
The author enjoys going in a car at ninety miles an hour.

(ii) Which tribe does the author belong to?
The author belongs to the tribes of slow thinkers.

(iii) Who are handicapped and why?
Slow thinkers are terribly handicapped because they are slow at getting a living.

(iv) Explain’I’esprit de I’escaliert’.
‘I’ esprit de I’ espaliers means a man of slow mind.