"Blind," I say. That is but a formal phrase; for
it happens that the very men and women who wreck their lives by doing
foolish things are those who are keenest in detecting folly and wisest
in giving advice to others. "Educate the people, and you will find that
a steady diminution of vice, debauchery, and criminality must set in." I
am not talking about criminality at present; but I am bound to say that
no amount of enlightenment seems to diminish the tendency toward forms
of folly which approach criminality. It is almost confounding to see how
lucid of mind and how sane in theoretical judgment are the men who
sometimes steep themselves in folly and even in vice. A wicked man
boasted much of his own wickedness to some fellow-travellers during a
brief sea-voyage. He said, "I like doing wrong for the sake of doing it.
When you know you are outraging the senses of decent people there is a
kind of excitement about it." This contemptible cynic told with glee
stories of his own vileness which made good men look at him with scorn;
but he fancied himself the cleverest of men. With the grave nearly ready
for him, he could chuckle over things which he had done--things which
proved him base, although none of them brought him within measurable
distance of the dock.
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