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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: one knows who has stared into the shop windows of the Quartier Latin,
and in which we kept the few books necessary for our studies.
The ink in the inkstand was always in the state of lava congealed in
the crater of a volcano. May not any inkstand nowadays become a
Vesuvius? The pens, all twisted, served to clean the stems of our
pipes; and, in opposition to all the laws of credit, paper was even
scarcer than coin.
How can young men be expected to stay at home in such furnished
lodgings? The students studied in the cafes, the theatre, the
Luxembourg gardens, in /grisettes'/ rooms, even in the law schools--
anywhere rather than in their horrible rooms--horrible for purposes of
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