The paths of glory, a poet wrote, lead but to the grave. But in the case of Kenneth Lay, who died yesterday of heart disease, it is a shame that the angel of death had to complete his grim business so quickly. His former glory was the ruin of many others.

In this untimely end, the greatest regret is rooted in the fact that the former Enron Corp. founder and officially pronounced criminal died still owing a large debt to society. The claim against him could never be paid off in money, always his coin of choice -- it had to be measured out in prison, where the prolonged contemplation of his lowly state would eat at his arrogant soul.

More than most felons, he needed to experience the distress that his willful behavior brought upon the ranks of investors and employees who had trusted in him. Dozens of careers were harmed or destroyed and hundreds of people impoverished by the fall of Kenneth Lay's house of cards.

In his glory days, Mr. Lay was more than a captain of industry; he was a potentate for whom the normal rules of business did not apply. A friend of President Bush, he was courted and fawned over until the rot filled enough nostrils and Enron came crashing down.

Even then, he was arrogance personified, as he made plain in his criminal trial earlier this year. Although he had been paid a king's ransom to run Enron, his defense was that he didn't do anything wrong and he could hardly be expected to know what underlings were doing. That did not sit well with a jury imbued with old-fashioned common sense. They knew con artists when they saw them and brought back verdicts accordingly (Jeffrey Skilling, the Enron CEO, was also convicted).

Now, Kenneth Lay is dead, and the ancient tradition of not speaking ill of the dead can be fairly suspended in consideration of thwarted justice. Mr. Lay's death yesterday frustrates the public interest. By rights, he should have died in prison, not out on bail near the posh millionaires' playground of Aspen, Colo.

But, of course, most Americans believe that a greater judgment awaits those in the next life. That must be the public consolation now, as will the knowledge that the name Kenneth Lay will go down in our language as a synonym for anyone who has abandoned ethics to pursue greed.