| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: crowns out of the "pin-money." When Grandet drew from his pocket the
five-franc piece which he allowed monthly for the minor expenses,--
thread, needles, and toilet,--of his daughter, he never failed to say
as he buttoned his breeches' pocket: "And you, mother, do you want
anything?"
"My friend," Madame Grandet would answer, moved by a sense of maternal
dignity, "we will see about that later."
Wasted dignity! Grandet thought himself very generous to his wife.
Philosophers who meet the like of Nanon, of Madame Grandet, of
Eugenie, have surely a right to say that irony is at the bottom of the
ways of Providence.
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: I'll do my best to help him."
"The senator has the key to the mystery," said Monsieur de Grandville;
"for a man knows his enemies and why they are so. Here we find him
leaving Paris at the close of the winter, coming to Gondreville alone,
shutting himself up with his notary, and delivering himself over, as
one might say, to five men who seize him."
"Certainly," said Bordin, "his conduct seems inexplicable. But how
could we, in the face of a hostile community, become accusers when we
ourselves are the accused? We should need the help and good-will of
the government and a thousand times more proof than is wanted in
ordinary circumstances. I am convinced there was premeditation, and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: with the tempers and dispositions of their respective pupils,
they could best judge what matches were suitable, and their judgments
were generally acquiesc'd in; but if, for example, it should happen
that two or three young women were found to be equally proper
for the young man, the lot was then recurred to. I objected,
if the matches are not made by the mutual choice of the parties,
some of them may chance to be very unhappy. "And so they may,"
answer'd my informer, "if you let the parties chuse for themselves;"
which, indeed, I could not deny.
Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the association went
on swimmingly, the inhabitants that were not Quakers having pretty
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
