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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: entertaining, powerful--in which the element of romantic love is
altogether subordinate, or even imperceptible. THE RISE OF SILAS
LAPHAM does not owe its deep interest to the engagement of the very
charming young people who enliven it. MADAME DELPHINE and OLE
'STRACTED are perfect stories of their kind. I would not barter THE
JUNGLE BOOKS for a hundred of THE BRUSHWOOD BOY.
The truth is that love, considered merely as the preference of one
person for another of the opposite sex, is not "the greatest thing
in the world." It becomes great only when it leads on, as it often
does, to heroism and self-sacrifice and fidelity. Its chief value
for art (the interpreter) lies not in itself, but in its quickening
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