o the lowest deep of
depravity. Fortunately for society, all special depravity is more or
less certainly the result, in the first instance, of special temptation.
The ordinary mass of us, thank God, pass through life without being
exposed to other than ordinary temptations. Thousands of the young
gentlemen, devoted to the favorite pursuits of the present time, will
get through existence with no worse consequences to themselves than
a coarse tone of mind and manners, and a lamentable incapability of
feeling any of those higher and gentler influences which sweeten and
purify the lives of more cultivated men. But take the other case (which
may occur to any body), the case of a special temptation trying a modern
young man of your prosperous class and of mine. And let me beg Mr.
Delamayn to honor with his attention what I have now to say, because it
refers to the opinion which I did really express--as distinguished from
the opinion which he affects to agree with, and which I never advanced."

Geoffrey's indifference showed no signs of giving way. "Go on!" he
said--and still sat looking straight before him, with heavy eyes, which
noticed nothing, and expressed nothing.

"Take the example which we have now in view," pursued Sir Patrick--"the
example of an average young gentleman of our time, blest with every
advantage that physical cultivation can bestow on him. Let this man be
tried by a temptation which insidiously calls into action, in his own
interests, the savage instincts latent in humanity--the instincts of
self-seeking and cruelty which are at the bottom of all crime. Let this
man be placed toward some other person, guiltless of injuring him, in a
position which demands one of two sacrifices: the sacrifice of the other
person, or the sacrifice of his own interests and his own desires.
His neighbor's happiness, or his neighbor's life, stands, let us say,
between him and the attainment of something that he wants. He can wreck
the happiness, or strike down the life, without, to his knowledge, any
fear of suffering for it himself. What is to prevent him, being the man
he is, from going straight to his end, on those conditions? Will the
skill in rowing, the swiftness in running, the admirable capacity and
endurance in other physical exercises, which he has attained, by a
strenuous cultivation in this kind that has excluded any similarly
strenuous cultivation in other kinds--will these physical attainments
help him to win a