I'm reading "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens and there's a passage that goes: Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away.
Now my question is what does "incapable of their directed exercise" mean or refer to. The "their" part of it I would assume refers to "good abilities" and "good emotions". Regarding "directed exercise" I would think it means the ability for the aforementioned qualities (abilities and emotions) to manifest themselves¿
If anyone can shed some light on it I would really appreciate it :)