Was there ever a more melancholy, remorse-stricken wretch than Cap'n
Davis? Or a gentler and seedier poet than Herrick? Or a more finely
sodden and soaked old rum sport than Huish (not--Whish!) But it was not
until they fell in with Attwater that their weakness as scoundrels was
exposed. Attwater was so splendidly religious! He was determined to have
things right if he had to have them so by bloodshed; he saved souls by
bullets. Things were right when they were as he thought they should
be. And believing so, with Torquemada, Alexander Sixtus and other most
religious brethren, he was ready to set up the stake and fagot and
cauterize sin with fire. One thing you can say about the religious folks
that are big with cocksureness and a mission--they may make mistakes,
but the mistake doesn't talk and criticise.

* * * * *

The only rascal worthy to travel in company with Stevenson's rascals is
the Chevalier Balibari, of Castle Barry, in Ireland, whose admirable
memoirs have been so well told by Mr. Thackeray. The Baron de la Motte
in "Denis Duval," was advantageously born to ornament the purple and
fine linen of picturesque unrighteousness--but his was a brief star that
fell unfinished from its place amidst the Pleiades. Thackeray's genius
ran more to disreputable men than to actual villains. But he drew two
scoundrels that will serve as beacon lights to any clean-souled youth
with the instinct to take warning. One was Lord Steyne, the other, Dr.
George Brand Firmin; one the aristocratic, class-bred, cynical brute,
the other the cold, tuft-hunting trained hypocrite. What encouragement
of self-respect Judas Iscariot might have received if he had met Dr.
Firmin!

Dr. Chadband, Mr. Pecksniff, Bill Sykes, Fagin, Mr. Murdstone, of