MARY AND MR.

REDMAIN.
A few rudiments of righteousness lurked, in their original undevelopment, but still in a measure active, in the being of Mr.
Redmain: there had been in the soul of his mother, I suspect, a strain of generosity, and she had left a mark of it upon him, and it was the best thing about him.

But in action these rudiments took an evil shape.
Preferring inferior company, and full of that suspicion which puts the last edge upon what the world calls knowledge of human nature, he thought no man his equal in penetrating the arena of motive, and reading actions in the light of motive; and, that the fundamental principle of all motive was self-interest, he assumed to be beyond dispute.

With this candle, not that of the Lord, he searched the dark places of the soul; but, where the soul was light, his candle could show him nothing--served only to blind him yet further, if possible, to what was there present.

And, because he did not seek the good, never yet in all his life had he come near enough to a righteous man to recognize that in something or other that man was different from himself.