|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: whom the Devil had glided. Indeed, if there is a phenomenon well
attested by experience, is it not the spiritual phenomenon commonly
called "the faith of the peasant"? The strength of belief varies
inversely with the amount of use that a man has made of his reasoning
faculties. Simple people and soldiers belong to the unreasoning class.
Those who have marched through life beneath the banner of instinct are
far more ready to receive the light than minds and hearts overwearied
with the world's sophistries.
Castanier had the southern temperament; he had joined the army as a
lad of sixteen, and had followed the French flag till he was nearly
forty years old. As a common trooper, he had fought day and night, and
|
