His deep experience also taught
him that, with a person of the young Duke's temper, the mode of life
which he was now leading was exactly the one which not only would
insure, but even hurry, the catastrophe his faithful friend so eagerly
desired. His pleasures, as Sir Lucius knew, would soon pall; for he
easily perceived that the Duke was not heartless enough for a roue. When
thorough satiety is felt, young men are in the cue for desperate deeds.
Looking upon happiness as a dream, or a prize which, in life's lottery,
they have missed; worn, hipped, dissatisfied, and desperate, they often
hurry on a result which they disapprove, merely to close a miserable
career, or to brave the society with which they cannot sympathise.
The Duke, however, was not yet sated. As after a feast, when we have
despatched a quantity of wine, there sometimes, as it were, arises a
second appetite, unnatural to be sure, but very keen; so, in a career of
dissipation, when our passion for pleasure appears to be exhausted, the
fatal fancy of man, like a wearied hare, will take a new turn, throw off
the hell-hounds of ennui, and course again with renewed vigour.
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