THE ROBIN'S NEST IS THE SECRET
The answer is "He was bad enough in all conscience, but the Devil himself could not temp him to turn slave-trader. Satirical is a synonym for sarcastic. So when the Author says that Tom Walker could not be tempted by the Devil he does not literally mean "The Devil" but he means that he is too morally upright to become a slave-trader.
I believe the correct answer is the first option - <span>“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?”
It seems to me that through this sentence the author is trying to justify whatever bad thing happened. He wants us to understand that anybody can make such a mistake so that we shouldn't judge so fast.
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