"The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there β there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were, β No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it β this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity β like yours β the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you β you so remote from the night of first ages β could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything β because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage β who can tell? β but truth β truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder β the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff β with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won't do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags β rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief."
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Heart of Darkness
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