who could
possibly have tempted an educated creature to such courses.

Terrible is the lot of a man who, while still young and possessing the
intellect necessary to achievement, is deprived of all ambition. And
I had none at all. I did not even wish to purchase a peerage or a
baronetcy in this fashion or in that, and, as in my father's case, my
tastes were so many and so catholic that I could not lose myself in any
one of them. They never became more than diversions to me. A hobby is
only really amusing when it becomes an obsession.

At length my lonesome friendlessness oppressed me so much that I took
steps to mitigate it. In my college life I had two particular friends
whom I think I must have selected because they were so absolutely
different from myself.

They were named Bastin and Bickley. Bastin--Basil was his Christian
name--was an uncouth, shock-headed, flat-footed person of large, rugged
frame and equally rugged honesty, with a mind almost incredibly simple.
Nothing surprised him because he lacked the faculty of surprise. He was
like that kind of fish which lies at the bottom of the sea and takes
every kind of food into its great maw without distinguishing its
flavour. Metaphorically speaking, heavenly manna and decayed cabbage
were just the same to Bastin. He was not fastidious and both were mental
pabulum--of a sort--together with whatever lay between these extremes.
Yet he was good, so painfully good that one felt that without exertion
to himself he had booked a first-class ticket straight to Heaven; indeed
that his guardian angel had tied it round his neck at birth lest he
should lose it, already numbered and dated like an identification disc.

I am bound to add that Bastin never went wrong because he never felt the
slightest temptation to do so. This I suppose constitutes real virtue,
since, in view of certain Bible sayings, the person who is tempted and
would like to yield to the temptation, is equally a sinner with the
person who does yield. To be truly good one should be too good to be
tempted, or too weak to make the effort worth the tempter's while--in
short not deserving of his powder and shot.

I need hardly add that Bastin went into the Church; indeed, he could not
have gone anywhere else; it absorbed him naturally, as doubtless Heaven
will do in due course. Only I think it likely that until they get to
know him he will bore the angels so much that they will continually move
him up higher. Al