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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: oscillations betray the weakness of the Government. You work on an
underhand system of policy which will be turned against you, for
France will be tired of your shuffling. France will not tell you that
she is tired of you; a man never knows whence his ruin comes; it is
the historian's task to find out; but you will undoubtedly perish as
the reward of not having the youth of France to lend you its strength
and energy; for having hated really capable men; for not having
lovingly chosen them from this noble generation; for having in all
cases preferred mediocrity.
"You have come to ask my support, but you are an atom in that decrepit
heap which is made hideous by self-interest, which trembles and
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