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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: which he had told me before he wrote his essay. This fact, bearing on
the post-existence of the inner man, if I may be allowed to coin a new
word for a phenomenon hitherto nameless, struck me so forcibly that I
have never forgotten it. His father and mother were being forced into
a lawsuit, of which the loss would leave them with a stain on their
good name, the only thing they had in the world. Hence their anxiety
was very great when the question first arose as to whether they should
yield to the plaintiff's unjust demands, or should defend themselves
against him. The matter came under discussion one autumn evening,
before a turf fire in the room used by the tanner and his wife. Two or
three relations were invited to this family council, and among others
Louis Lambert |
