4/26 Had he expended himself in the attempt, he could not have drawn a Master of Ravenswood. He is not as weak, as selfish, as untrustworthy as that George Osborne whom Amelia married in _Vanity Fair_; but nevertheless, he is weak, and selfish, and untrustworthy. He is not such a one as a father would wish to see his son, or a mother to welcome as a lover for her daughter. But then, fathers are so often doomed to find their sons not all that they wish, and mothers to see their girls falling in love with young men who are not Paladins. In our individual lives we are contented to endure an admixture of evil, which we should resent if imputed to us in the general. |