|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: put off to a later hour on account of Melmoth's funeral, so Castanier
arrived just as the great preacher was epitomizing the proofs of a
future existence of happiness with all the charm of eloquence and
force of expression which have made him famous. The seeds of divine
doctrine fell into a soil prepared for them in the old dragoon, into
whom the Devil had glided. Indeed, if there is a phenomenon well
attested by experience, is it not the spiritual phenomenon commonly
called "the faith of the peasant"? The strength of belief varies
inversely with the amount of use that a man has made of his reasoning
faculties. Simple people and soldiers belong to the unreasoning class.
Those who have marched through life beneath the banner of instinct are
|
