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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: duty from its legal degradation, enable the soul to meet the trials of
life with the unalterable serenity of the Quaker, ordain contempt for
the sufferings of this life, and inspire a fostering care of that
angel within us who allies us to the divine. It is stoicism with an
immortal future. Active prayer and pure love are the elements of this
faith, which is born of the Roman Church but returns to the
Christianity of the primitive faith. Mademoiselle de Lenoncourt
remained, however, in the Catholic communion, to which her aunt was
equally bound. Cruelly tried by revolutionary horrors, the Duchesse de
Verneuil acquired in the last years of her life a halo of passionate
piety, which, to use the phraseology of Saint-Martin, shed the light
The Lily of the Valley |
