Trodding Down A Sated Generation

I started reading The Moon and Sixpense, and it amazes me how accurate old novels can sometimes be.  Originally published in 1919, this passage still resonates:

The younger generation… [has] burst in and seated themselves in our seats.  The air is noisy with their shouts.  Of their elders some, by imitating the antics of youth, strive to persuade themselves that their day is not yet over; they shout with the lustiest, but the war-cry sounds hollow in their mouth … The wiser go their way with a decent grace.  In their chastened smile is an indulgent mockery.  They remember that they too trod down a sated generation, with just such clamor and with just such scorn, and they foresee that these brave torchbearers will presently yield their place also. — W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpense

photo credit: steews4