It was no wonder that Marcello's anger rose at the mere thought.
Moreover, as Marcello's understanding awoke, he realised that Folco had encouraged him in all he had done, and had not seemed pleased when he had begun to live more quietly.

Folco would have made him his companion in pleasure, if he could, and the idea was horrible to Marcello as soon as it presented itself.
It was the discovery that he had been mistaken in Corbario that most directly helped him to regain his foothold in life and his free will.
There was more in the Spartan method than we are always ready to admit, for it is easier to disgust most men by the sight of human degradation than to strengthen them against temptation by preaching, or by the lessons of example which are so very peculiarly disagreeable to the normal man.
"I am virtuous, I am sober, I resist temptation, imitate me!" cries the preacher.

You say that you are virtuous, and you are apparently sober, my friend; and perhaps you are a very good man, though you need not scream out the statement at the top of your voice.

But how are we to know that you have any temptations to resist?
Or that your temptations are the same as ours, even supposing that you have any?
Or that you are speaking the truth about yourself, since what you say is so extremely flattering to your vanity?
Wherever there is preaching, those who are preached at are expected to accept a good deal on the mere word of the preacher, quite aside from anything they have been brought to believe elsewhere.
"Temptation ?" said a certain great lady who was not strong in theology.
"That is what one yields to, isn't it ?" She probably knew what she was talking about, for she had lived in the world a good while, as we have.

But the preacher is not very often one of us, and he knows little of our ways and next to nothing of our real feelings; yet he exhorts us to be like him.