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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: on, unheeding, "nobody comprehends Petrarch. Philosophers and
sensualists all refuse to believe that his dream of Laura went
on, even when he had a mistress and a child. Why not? Every
one must have something to which his dreams can cling, amid the
degradations of actual life, and this tie is more real than the
degradation; and if he holds to the tie, it will one day save
him."
"What is the need of the degradation?" put in the clear-headed
Harry.
"None, except in weakness," said Philip. "A stronger nature
may escape it. Good God! do I not know how Petrarch must have
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