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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: "You would laugh at me for a fool," cried he, "if I took you at your
word. Jesuits are a thing of the past, but Jesuitism is eternal. Your
Machiavelism and your generosity are equally hollow and untrustworthy.
You can make your own calculations, but who can calculate on you? Your
Court is made up of owls who fear the light, of old men who quake in
the presence of the young, or who simply disregard them. The
Government is formed on the same pattern as the Court. You have hunted
up the remains of the Empire, as the Restoration enlisted the
Voltigeurs of Louis XIV.
"Hitherto the evasions of cowardice have been taken for the
manoeuvring of ability; but dangers will come, and the younger
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