The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: his own, too, were largely modified by events subsequent to their parting.
He would not conceal from her that passionate love had little to do
with his communication. It arose from a wish to make their lives,
if not a success, at least no such disastrous failure as they threatened
to become, through his acting on what he had considered at the time
a principle of justice, charity, and reason.
To indulge one's instinctive and uncontrolled sense of justice and right,
was not, he had found, permitted with impunity in an old civilization
like ours. It was necessary to act under an acquired and cultivated sense
of the same, if you wished to enjoy an average share of comfort and honour;
and to let crude loving kindness take care of itself.
 Jude the Obscure |