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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: anguish to me--the beginning of paralysis of the heart--my vanity was
mortified, my soul rent. One must needs have been the centre of all
looks and aspirations, the mainspring of the life about him, the torch
from which all others drew their light, to understand the horror of
the void that was now about me. All things were there, the same, but
the spirit that gave life to them was extinct, like a blown-out flame.
I now understood the desperate desire of lovers never to see each
other again when love has flown. To be nothing where we were once so
much! To find the chilling silence of the grave where life so lately
sparkled! Such comparisons are overwhelming. I came at last to envy
the dismal ignorance of all happiness which had darkened my youth. My
The Lily of the Valley |
