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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: found its ultimate reward in the treasures of fame, the triumph of the
poem which she had inspired. Surely the emotion that the Chevalier
d'Assas felt in dying must have been to him a lifetime of joy. Such
emotions as these Paz enjoyed daily,--without dying, but also without
the guerdon of immortality.
But what is Love, that, in spite of all these ineffable delights, Paz
should still have been unhappy? The Catholic religion has so magnified
Love that she has wedded it indissolubly to respect and nobility of
spirit. Love is therefore attended by those sentiments and qualities
of which mankind is proud; it is rare to find true Love existing where
contempt is felt. Thaddeus was suffering from the wounds his own hand
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