The whole fabric of his character had been shaken, jostled out of its old shape.

His desire of vice was numbed, his evil habits all deranged; here, if ever, was the chance to begin anew, to commence all over again.

It seemed an easy matter: he would merely have to remain inactive, impassive, and his character would of itself re-form upon the new conditions.
But Vandover made another fatal mistake: the brute in him had only been stunned; the snake was only soothed.

His better self was as sluggish as the brute, and his desire of art as numb as his desire of vice.

It was not a continued state of inaction and idleness that could help him, but rather an active and energetic arousing and spurring up of those better qualities in him still dormant and inert.