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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: dances by subscription), above all, a nation which in the Napoleonic
struggle between France and Europe had given us six thousand men, and
what men!
Do not infer from this that either side is taken here; either that of
the Emperor Nicholas against Poland, or that of Poland against the
Emperor. It would be a foolish thing to slip political discussion into
tales that are intended to amuse or interest. Besides, Russia and
Poland were both right,--one to wish the unity of its empire, the
other to desire its liberty. Let us say in passing that Poland might
have conquered Russia by the influence of her morals instead of
fighting her with weapons; she should have imitated China which, in
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