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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: in which he included knowing how to die; but, as Newman reflected,
with a good deal of dumb irritation, he seemed disposed to delegate
to others the application of his learning on this latter point.
M. de Grosjoyaux was of quite another complexion, and appeared to regard
his friend's theological unction as the sign of an inaccessibly
superior mind. He was evidently doing his utmost, with a kind
of jovial tenderness, to make life agreeable to Valentin to the last,
and help him as little as possible to miss the Boulevard des Italiens;
but what chiefly occupied his mind was the mystery of a bungling
brewer's son making so neat a shot. He himself could snuff a candle,
etc., and yet he confessed that he could not have done better than this.
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