Mr. Pontifex never lacked anything he much cared about. True, he
might have been happier than he was if he had cared about things which
he did not care for, but the gist of this lies in the "if he had
cared." We have all sinned and come short of the glory of making
ourselves as comfortable as we easily might have done, but in this
particular case Mr. Pontifex did not care, and would not have gained
much by getting what he did not want.
There is no casting of swine's meat before men worse than that which
would flatter virtue as though her true origin were not good enough
for her, but she must have a lineage, deduced as it were by
spiritual heralds, from some stock with which she has nothing to do.
Virtue's true lineage is older and more respectable than any that
can be invented for her. She springs from man's experience
concerning his own well-being- and this, though not infallible, is
still the least fallible thing we have. A system which cannot stand
without a better foundation than this must have something so
unstable within itself that it will topple over on whatever pedestal
we place it.
The world has long ago settled that morality and virtue are what
bring men peace at the last.
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