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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: the enjoying, the blessing of hunger that is appeased every day; the
noble incentives of unappeasable ambitions. All--all the blessings
of life. All--but the certitude immaterial and precious--the certitude
of love and faith. He believed the shadow of it had been with him as
long as he could remember; that invisible presence had ruled his life.
And now the shadow had appeared and faded he could not extinguish
his longing for the truth of its substance. His desire of it was
naive; it was masterful like the material aspirations that are the
groundwork of existence, but, unlike these, it was unconquerable. It
was the subtle despotism of an idea that suffers no rivals, that is
lonely, inconsolable, and dangerous. He went slowly up the stairs.
 Tales of Unrest |