He had courage, he had resource.
Upon occasion he was even brilliant.

But ever the fatal handicap existed that had pulled him down.

He lacked moral strength, the power to resist temptation.

As long as he lived, this infirmity of character would dog his steps, would ruin his every enterprise.
And Burke, whose stubborn force made him instinctively impatient of such weakness, lay and contemplated the future with bitter foreboding.
There had been a time when he had thought to rectify the evil, to save Guy from himself, to implant in him something of that moral fibre which he so grievously lacked.

But he had been forced long since to recognize his own limitations in this respect.