He is substantially trying to cheat both God and the devil, and is in reality only cheating himself and his neighbours.

This of all characters upon the earth appears to us to be the one of which there is no hope at all, a character becoming in these days alarmingly abundant; and the aboundance of which makes us find even in a Reineke an inexpressible relief." And, in point of fact, the inconsistency of Seneca's life was a _conscious_ inconsistency.

"To the student," he says, "who professes his wish to rise to a loftier grade of virtue, I would answer that this is my _wish_ also, but I dare not hope it.

_I am preoccupied with vices.

All I require of myself is, not to be equal to the best_, but only _to be better than the bad_." No doubt Seneca meant this to be understood merely for modest depreciation; but it was far truer than he would have liked seriously to confess.