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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: envy?--a vice that brings nothing in!
Persons in society, literary men, honest folk,--in short, individuals
of all species,--were promulgating in the month of January, 1824, so
many different opinions about Madame Firmiani that it would be tedious
to write them down. We have merely sought to show that a man seeking
to understand her, yet unwilling or unable to go to her house, would
(from the answers to his inquiries) have had equal reason to suppose
her a widow or wife, silly or wise, virtuous or the reverse, rich or
pour, soulless or full of feeling, handsome or plain,--in short, there
were as many Madame Firmianis as there are species in society, or
sects in Catholicism. Frightful reflection! we are all like
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