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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: statesmen. A belief in his capacity had taken such deep root in all
minds that the more ambitious public men felt it was necessary to
compromise des Lupeaulx in some way to prevent his rising higher; they
made up to him for his subordinate public position by their secret
confidence.
Nevertheless, feeling that such men were dependent on him, this
gleaner of ideas exacted certain dues. He received a salary on the
staff of the National Guard, where he held a sinecure which was paid
for by the city of Paris; he was government commissioner to a secret
society; and filled a position of superintendence in the royal
household. His two official posts which appeared on the budget were
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