| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: formulated, in his sixteenth year, such a psychological dictum as
this:--"The events which bear witness to the action of the human race,
and are the outcome of its intellect, have causes by which they are
preconceived, as our actions are accomplished in our minds before they
are reproduced by the outer man; presentiments or predictions are the
perception of these causes"--I think we may deplore in him a genius
equal to Pascal, Lavoisier, or Laplace. His chimerical notions about
angels perhaps overruled his work too long; but was it not in trying
to make gold that the alchemists unconsciously created chemistry? At
the same time, Lambert, at a later period, studied comparative
anatomy, physics, geometry, and other sciences bearing on his
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: "Only positive proof that such a seam exists."
"And the proof?"
"Could fire-damp issue from the bowels of the earth if coal
was not there to produce it?"
"No, certainly not!" replied the engineer. "No coal, no fire-damp.
No effects without a cause."
"Just as no smoke without fire."
"And have you recognized the presence of light carburetted hydrogen?"
"An old miner could not be deceived," answered Ford. "I have met
with our old enemy, the fire-damp!"
"But suppose it was another gas," said Starr. "Firedamp is almost
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Thy father slew my father; therefore, die. [Clifford stabs him.]
RUTLAND.
Dii faciant laudis summa sit ista tuae! [Dies.]
CLIFFORD.
Plantagenet! I come, Plantagenet!
And this thy son's blood cleaving to my blade
Shall rust upon my weapon till thy blood
Congeal'd with this, do make me wipe off both.
[Exit.]
SCENE IV. The Same
[Alarum. Enter YORK.]
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