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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: Athens--when he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented
established social interests which held themselves legitimate,
invested with co-operative powers, and obliged to defend themselves.
Pilate and Anytus in their time were not less logical than the public
prosecutors who demanded the heads of the sergeants of La Rochelle;
who, at this day, are guillotining the republicans who take up arms
against the throne as established by the revolution of July, and the
innovators who aim at upsetting society for their own advantage under
pretence of organizing it on a better footing. In the eyes of the
great families of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus were criminals;
to those ancient aristocracies their opinions were akin to those of
The Muse of the Department |
