s the first requisite; and given that, we
may hope all things for him. "Hell is paved with
good intentions," the proverb says; and the enormous
proportion of bad successes in this life lie between the
desire and the execution. Give us a man who is able
to do what he settles that he desires to do, and we have
the one thing indispensable. If he can succeed doing
ill, much more he can succeed doing well. Show him
better, and, at any rate, there is a chance that he will
do better.

We are not concerned here with Benvenuto or with
Ulysses further than to show, through the position
which we all consent to give them, that there is much
unreality, against which we must be on our guard. And
if we fling off an old friend, and take to affecting a
hatred of him which we do not feel, we have scarcely
gained by the exchange, even though originally our
friendship may have been misplaced.

Capability no one will deny to Reineke. That is
the very differentia of him. An "animal capable" would
be his sufficient definition. Here is another very
genuinely valuable feature about him--his wonderful
singleness of character. Lying, treacherous, cunning
scoundrel as he is, there is a wholesome absence of
humbug about him. Cheating all the world, he never
cheats himself; and while he is a hypocrite, he is always
a conscious hypocrite--a form of character, however
paradoxical it may seem, a great deal more accessible
than the other of the unconscious sort. Ask Reineke
for the principles of his life, and if it suited his purpose
to tell you, he could do so with the greatest exactness.
There would be no discrepancy between the profession
and the practice. He is most truly single-minded, and
therefore stable in his ways, and therefore as the world
goes, and in the world's sense, successful. Whether
really successful is a question we do not care here to
enter on; but only to say this--that of all unsuccessful
men in every sense, either divine, or human, or devilish,
there is none equal to old Bunyan's Mr. Facing-both-ways
--the fellow with one eye on Heaven and one on earth
--who sincerely preaches one thing, and sincerely does
another; and from the intensity of his unreality is
unable either to see or feel the contradiction. Serving
God with his lips, and with the half of his mind which
is not bound up in the world; and serving the devil with
his actions, and with the other half, he is substantially
trying to cheat both God and the devil,