Part 19 (1/2)

”Why, in nine cases out of ten the faults are grossly exaggerated and misrepresented, and I should try to prove that such is the fact; and for the rest,--why, no man is perfect.”

”You s.h.i.+rk the question, though,” said Lillyston; ”for you have to make very tremendous allowance indeed for some of the very best of men.”

As, for instance?

”As, for instance, king David.”

”Oh, don't take Scripture instances,” said Suton, an excellent fellow whom they all liked, though he took very different views of things from their own.

”Why not, in heaven's name?” said Kennedy; ”if they suit, they are good because so thoroughly familiar.”

”Yes, but somehow one judges them differently.”

”I daresay you do,--in fact I know you do; but you've no business to. I maintain that even according to Moses, king David deserved a felon's death. Murder and adultery were crimes every bit as heinous then as they are now. Yet David, this most _human_ of heroes, was the man after G.o.d's own heart. Solve me the problem.”

”Practically,” said Lillyston; ”I believe one follows a genuine instinct in _determining not_ to look at the spots, however wide or dark they are, upon the sun.”

”And in accepting theoretically old Strabo's grand dictum, _ouch oion agathon genesthai poieeteen mee pzotezon geneethenta anoza agathon_.

Eh?”

”As Coleridge was so fond of doing,” said Julian.

”Ay, he needed the theory,” said Suton.

”Hus.h.!.+” said Julian, ”I can't stand any such Philadelphus hints about Coleridge. By the bye, Owen, you might have quoted a still more apt ill.u.s.tration from Seneca, who criticises Livy for saying 'Vir ingenii magni magis quam boni' with the remark, 'Non potest illud separari; aut _et_ bonum erit aut _nec_ magnum.'”

Mr Admer, who was one of the circle, chuckled inwardly at the discussion. ”I was once,” he said, ”at a party where a lady sang one of Byron's Hebrew melodies. At the close of it a young clergyman sighed deeply, and with an air of intense self-satisfaction, observed, 'Ah! I was wondering where poor Byron is now!' What should you have all said to that?”

”Detesting Byron's personal character, I should have said that the very wonder was a piece of idle and meddling presumption,” said Owen.

”And I should have answered that the Judge will do right,” said Suton reverently.

”Or if he wanted a text, 'Who art thou that judgest another?'” said Lillyston contemptuously.

”And I,” said Julian, should have said,--

”Let feeble hands iniquitously just, Rake up the relics of the sinful dust, Let Ignorance mock the pang it cannot heal, And Malice brand what Mercy would conceal;-- It matters not!”

”And I,” said Kennedy, ”should have been vehemently inclined to tweak the man's nose.”

”But what did _you_ say, Mr Admer?” asked Lillyston.

”I answered a fool according to his folly. I threw up my eyes and said, 'Ah, where, indeed! What a good thing it is that you and I, sir, are not as that publican.'”

”I should think he skewered you with a glance, didn't he?” said Kennedy.

”No, he was going to _bore_ me with an argument, which I declined.”

”But you've all cut the question: tell me now, supposing you had known king David, should you have thought worse of him, should you have been cool to him--in a word, should you have _cut_ him after his fall?”