I did it because the way led to it, because I was only a human boy, a creature of my environment, and neither an anaemic nor a god. And the way was open. It was like an uncovered well in a yard where children play. It is small use to tell the brave little boys toddling their way along into knowledge of life that they mustn't play near the uncovered well. They'll play near it.
Any parent knows that.
And we know that a certain percentage of them, the livest and most daring, will fall into the well. The case is the same with John Barleycorn.