Does man ever reform?
Balzac says he doesn't.

So far as my experience goes, it agrees with that of Balzac--a fact the admirers of that author are at liberty to make what use of they please.
When I was young and accustomed to take my views of life from people who were older than myself, and who knew better, so they said, I used to believe that he did.

Examples of "reformed characters" were frequently pointed out to me--indeed, our village, situate a few miles from a small seaport town, seemed to be peculiarly rich in such.

They were, from all accounts, including their own, persons who had formerly behaved with quite unnecessary depravity, and who, at the time I knew them, appeared to be going to equally objectionable lengths in the opposite direction.
They invariably belonged to one of two classes, the low-spirited or the aggressively unpleasant.

They said, and I believed, that they were happy; but I could not help reflecting how very sad they must have been before they were happy.
One of them, a small, meek-eyed old man with a piping voice, had been exceptionally wild in his youth.