Godolphin, on the contrary, is the man of poetical temperament, out of his place alike among the trifling idlers and the bustling actors of the world--wanting the stimulus of necessity--or the higher motive which springs from benevolence, to give energy to his powers, or definite purpose to his fluctuating desires; not strong enough to break the bonds that confine his genius--not supple enough to accommodate its movements to their purpose.

He is the moral antipodes to Pelham.

In evading the struggles of the world, he grows indifferent to its duties--he strives with no obstacles--he can triumph in no career.

Represented as possessing mental qualities of a higher and a richer nature than those to which Pelham can pretend, he is also represented as very inferior to him in constitution of character, and he is certainly a more ordinary type of the intellectual trifler.
The characters grouped around Godolphin are those with which such a man usually associates his life.

They are designed to have a certain grace--a certain harmony with one form or the other of his twofold temperament:--viz., either its conventional elegance of taste, or its constitutional poetry of idea.