The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: pulled out the clear pebble and turned its light on his brother;
and behold the man was lying, his soul was shrunk into the
smallness of a pea, and his heart was a bag of little fears like
scorpions, and love was dead in his bosom. And at that the elder
brother cried out aloud, and turned the light of the pebble on the
maid, and, lo! she was but a mask of a woman, and withinside's she
was quite dead, and she smiled as a clock ticks, and knew not
wherefore.
"Oh, well," said the elder brother, "I perceive there is both good
and bad. So fare ye all as well as ye may in the dun; but I will
go forth into the world with my pebble in my pocket."
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