order of magnitude speculate
on in response to a streak of
conform to in retrospect as far as...is
concerned lay out let alone
pave the way for ______ the follies of today’s commercial and political worlds, the author does not express inflamed indignation, but rather affects the detachment and smooth aphoristic prose of an eighteenth-century wit.
作为对如今商业和政治世界的愚昧的响应，作者没有表达过激的愤怒，而是模仿某位18世纪智者的那种客观且舒缓的、警句格式的散文体来表达自己的观点。