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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: hands to our neighbours.
Alva. They will, if they cannot be prevented. It is on this account that the
king desires counsel and aid from every prince, zealous co-operation from
every stadtholder; not merely a description of the present posture of
affairs, or conjectures as to what might take place were events suffered to
hold on their course without interruption. To contemplate a mighty evil, to
flatter oneself with hope, to trust to time, to strike a blow, like the clown in
a play, so as to make a noise and appear to do something, when in fact one
would fain do nothing; is not such conduct calculated to awaken a
suspicion that those who act thus contemplate with satisfaction a rebellion,
which they would not indeed excite, but which they are by no means
Egmont |
