The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: sons and nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and
the mainspring and headpiece of this great concern, until death
took him, was a certain remarkable man of the name of Theodor
Weber. He was of an artful and commanding character; in the
smallest thing or the greatest, without fear or scruple; equally
able to affect, equally ready to adopt, the most engaging
politeness or the most imperious airs of domination. It was he who
did most damage to rival traders; it was he who most harried the
Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or native, who did not
respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle, and the man
a great fighter; and now when he is dead, and the war seems to have
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