e, a definite object
to be gained or a definite evil to be avoided. The truth is, that, the
primitive wants of nature once tolerably satisfied, the majority of
mankind, even in a civilised life full of solicitations, are with
difficulty aroused to the distinct conception of an object towards which
they will direct their actions with careful adaptation, and it is yet
rarer to find one who can persist in the systematic pursuit of such an
end. Few lives are shaped, few characters formed, by the contemplation
of definite consequences seen from a distance and made the goal of
continuous effort or the beacon of a constantly avoided danger: such
control by foresight, such vivid picturing and practical logic are the
distinction of exceptionally strong natures; but society is chiefly made
up of human beings whose daily acts are all performed either in
unreflecting obedience to custom and routine or from immediate
promptings of thought or feeling to execute an immediate purpose. They
pay their poor-rates, give their vote in affairs political or parochial,
wear a certain amount of starch, hinder boys from tormenting the
helpless, and spend money on tedious observances called pleasures,
without mentally adjusting these practices to their own well-understood
interest or to the general, ultimate welfare of the human race; and when
they fall into ungraceful compliment, excessive smiling or other
luckless efforts of complaisant behaviour, these are but the tricks or
habits gradually formed under the successive promptings of a wish to be
agreeable, stimulated day by day without any widening resources for
gratifying the wish. It does not in the least follow that they are
seeking by studied hypocrisy to get something for themselves. And so
with Hinze's deferential bearing, complimentary parentheses, and
worshipful tones, which seem to some like the over-acting of a part in a
comedy. He expects no appointment or other appreciable gain through
Tulpian's favour; he has no doubleness towards Felicia; there is no
sneering or backbiting obverse to his ecstatic admiration. He is very
well off in the world, and cherishes no unsatisfied ambition that could
feed design and direct flattery. As you perceive, he has had the
education and other advantages of a gentleman without being conscious of
marked result, such as a decided preference for any particular ideas or
functions: his mind is furnished as hotels are, with everything for
occasional and tran