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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: ceremonies, in which all the heathen gods and goddesses figure;
epigrams, panegyrics, satires, much of which latter productions he
would have consigned to the dust-heap in his old age, had not his
too fond friends persuaded him to republish the follies and
coarsenesses of his youth. He was now one of the most famous
scholars in Europe, and the intimate friend of all the great
literary men. Was he to go on to the end, die, and no more? Was he
to sink into the mere pedant; or, if he could not do that, into the
mere court versifier?
The wars of religion saved him, as they saved many another noble
soul, from that degradation. The events of 1560-62 forced Buchanan,
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