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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: should never forget how Yoshida marched afoot from Choshu to
Yeddo, and from Yeddo to Nangasaki, and from Nangasaki back
again to Yeddo; how he boarded the American ship, his dress
stuffed with writing material; nor how he languished in
prison, and finally gave his death, as he had formerly given
all his life and strength and leisure, to gain for his native
land that very benefit which she now enjoys so largely. It
is better to be Yoshida and perish, than to be only Sakuma
and yet save the hide. Kusakabe, of Satzuma, has said the
word: it is better to be a crystal and be broken.
I must add a word; for I hope the reader will not fail to
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