I tried to be good a long time ago. I was, oh, 29? Something like that. I'd gone into the countryside, wooed another pretty girl, could have had her if I wished it—but I decided not to. I would leave her as flowerlike as I had found her.
[A little bitterness in his voice? Perhaps.]
I told the tale to perhaps my most constant friend. Another Henry, as it happens. And he said, "I should think the novelty of the emotion must have given you a thrill of real pleasure."
[He becomes quiet.] Vanity, curiosity, hypocrisy. The core thought of my good deed. The portrait said as much.
Is that so terrible? If we only do what is good out of our moral weaknesses? I don't know if the hypocrisy makes it worse than what corruption we succumb to or if at least the effect of goodness has a worthiness to it, if not the cause.
no subject
[A little bitterness in his voice? Perhaps.]
I told the tale to perhaps my most constant friend. Another Henry, as it happens. And he said, "I should think the novelty of the emotion must have given you a thrill of real pleasure."
[He becomes quiet.] Vanity, curiosity, hypocrisy. The core thought of my good deed. The portrait said as much.
Is that so terrible? If we only do what is good out of our moral weaknesses? I don't know if the hypocrisy makes it worse than what corruption we succumb to or if at least the effect of goodness has a worthiness to it, if not the cause.