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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, -
but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. There is one
very sad thing in old friendships, to every mind that is really
moving onward. It is this: that one cannot help using his early
friends as the seaman uses the log, to mark his progress. Every
now and then we throw an old schoolmate over the stern with a
string of thought tied to him, and look - I am afraid with a kind
of luxurious and sanctimonious compassion - to see the rate at
which the string reels off, while he lies there bobbing up and
down, poor fellow! and we are dashing along with the white foam and
bright sparkle at our bows; - the ruffled bosom of prosperity and
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
