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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: of page to the Emperor, trained from the age of twelve in the art of
riding, he was held to be the skilfulest of horsemen. Having always
fine horses in his stable, he raised some, and ruled the fashion in
equestrianism. No man could stand a supper of young bloods better than
he; he drank more than the best-trained toper, but he came out fresh
and cool, and ready to begin again as if orgy were his element.
Maxime, one of those despised men who know how to repress the contempt
they inspire by the insolence of their attitude and the fear they
cause, never deceived himself as to his actual position. Hence his
real strength. Strong men are always their own critics.
Under the Restoration he had made the most of his former condition of
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