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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: the public mind; and it will be seen how speedily loyalty and affection will
return, when confidence is restored.
Alva. How! And suffer those who have insulted the majesty of the king,
who have violated the sanctuaries of our religion, to go abroad
unchallenged! living witnesses that enormous crimes may be perpetrated
with impunity!
Egmont. And ought not a crime of frenzy, of intoxication, to be excused,
rather than horribly chastised? Especially when there is the sure hope, nay,
more, where there is positive certainty that the evil will never again recur?
Would not sovereigns thus be more secure? Are not those monarchs most
extolled by the world and by posterity, who can pardon, pity, despise an
Egmont |
