text:  His morals it must be confessed were very lax--his principles unsteady and insecure--and how could it be otherwise? Deprived of his mother at his birth and from that hour brought up under the eye and tutelage of a man who had spent a life in the education of one idea--who regarded money-making as the business the duty the pleasure the very soul and end of our existence--who judged of the worth of mankind--of men women and children--according to their incomes and accounted all men virtuous who were rich--all guilty who were poor--whose spirit was so intent upon accumulation that it did not stop to choose the straight and open roads that led to it but often crept through many crooked and unclean--brought up I say under such a father and a guide was it a wonder that Michael was imperfect in many qualities of mind--that reason with him was no tutor that his understanding failed to be as South expresses it "the soul's upper region lofty and serene free from the vapours and disturbances of the inferior affections?" In truth there was no upper region at all and very little serenity in Michael's composition