Excerpt from Letter to William Lloyd Garrison from Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Cabin, Dec. 19, 1853
Mr. Garrison
Dear Sir:
1 After seeing you, I enjoyed the pleasure of a personal interview with Mr. Douglass and I feel bound in justice to say that the impression was far more satisfactory, than I had anticipated.
2 There does not appear to be any deep underlying stratum of bitterness -- he did not seem to me malignant or revengeful. I think that it was only a temporary excitement and one which he will outgrow.
3 I was much gratified with the growth and development both of his mind and heart. I am satisfied that his change of sentiments was not a mere political one but a genuine growth of his own conviction. A vigorous reflective mind like his, cast among those holding new sentiments, is naturally led to modified views.
4 At all events, he holds no opinion which he cannot defend, with a variety and richness of thought and expression and an aptness of illustration which show it to be a growth from the soil of his own mind with a living root and not a twig broken off other men's thoughts and stuck down to subserve a temporary purpose.
5 His plans for the elevation of his own race, are manly, sensible, comprehensive, he has evidently observed carefully and thought deeply and will I trust act efficiently.
Which sentence BEST paraphrases the underlined sentence from the letter?
Question 14 options:
A mind can modify views.
When one reflects on the way he feels, it is perfectly natural to change your view to the newer idea.
It is vigorous and difficult to cast one’s new feelings aside and modify his views to the ones whose views he opposes.
Someone with as dynamic and thoughtful a mind as Douglass had can be persuaded to adopt new views because of an open-mindedness and flexibility.