|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: in a sober, serious, and devout admiration of Nucingen, owning that
Nucingen really had the power which he thought he himself alone
possessed.
"From Rastignac's introduction to society in Paris, he had been led to
contemn it utterly. From the year 1820 he thought, like the Baron,
that honesty was a question of appearances; he looked upon the world
as a mixture of corruption and rascality of every sort. If he admitted
exceptions, he condemned the mass; he put no belief in any virtue--men
did right or wrong, as circumstances decided. His worldly wisdom was
the work of a moment; he learned his lesson at the summit of Pere
Lachaise one day when he buried a poor, good man there; it was his
|
