But, as Racine so wisely observes in those same choruses: Great God, with what uncertain tread A budding virtue ‘mid such perils goes! What stumbling-blocks do lie before a soul That seeks Thee and would fain be innocent. The young waiter might indeed have been brought up ‘remote from the world’ in the Temple-Caravanserai of Balbec, he had not followed the advice of Joad: In riches and in gold put not thy trust. He had perhaps justified himself by saying: “The wicked cover the earth.”
