|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: natural tears--given more, however, as I was told, to my piety than
to my mother's deserts. But rarely was I heard out with patience;
and from some houses repelled with personal indignities. The day
came: I saw my mother half undressed by the base officials; I heard
the prison gates expand; I heard the trumpets of the magistracy
sound. She had warned me what to do; I had warned myself. Would I
sacrifice a retribution sacred and comprehensive, for the momentary
triumph over an individual? If not, let me forbear to look out of
doors; for I felt that in the selfsame moment in which I saw the
dog of an executioner raise his accursed hand against my mother,
swifter than the lightning would my dagger search his heart. When
|
