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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: after this fashion, the business is well adapted to indolent brains,
to men devoid of the sublime faculty of imagination, or, possessed of
it indeed, but lacking courage to cultivate it. Every play, every book
comes to their pen as a subject, making no demand on their
imagination, and of which they simply write a report, seriously or in
irony, according to the mood of the moment. As to an opinion, whatever
it may be, French wit can always justify it, being admirably ready to
defend either side of any case. And conscience counts for so little,
these /bravi/ have so little value for their own words, that they will
loudly praise in the greenroom the work they tear to tatters in print.
Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to
The Muse of the Department |
