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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: had grown callous to the shabby trick played him by the dead languages.
In fact, his disappointment at the nature of those tongues had, after a while,
been the means of still further glorifying the erudition of Christminster.
To acquire languages, departed or living in spite of such obstinacies
as he now knew them inherently to possess, was a herculean performance
which gradually led him on to a greater interest in it than in the presupposed
patent process. The mountain-weight of material under which the ideas
lay in those dusty volumes called the classics piqued him into a dogged,
mouselike subtlety of attempt to move it piecemeal.
He had endeavoured to make his presence tolerable to his crusty maiden
aunt by assisting her to the best of his ability, and the business
Jude the Obscure |
