| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: schoolroom than half the trashy accomplishments, so-called, which
are expected to be known by governesses. But are they bought?
Are they even to be bought, from most country booksellers? Ah,
for a little knowledge of the laws to the neglect of which is
owing so much fearful disease, which, if it does not produce
immediate death, too often leaves the constitution impaired for
years to come. Ah the waste of health and strength in the young;
the waste, too, of anxiety and misery in those who love and tend
them. How much of it might be saved by a little rational
education in those laws of nature which are the will of God about
the welfare of our bodies, and which, therefore, we are as much
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: ask.
More than once on her way to Temple Street did she stop short,
resolved to get the money of some other person--the grocer, Mr.
Sneed, or even of a pawnbroker; but as often she rebuked the
pride that tormented her like a demon, and went forward again.
She stood some time at Mrs. Gordon's door before she had the
resolution to ring the bell.
"What right have I to be so proud?" said she, grasping the bell
handle. "I must get this money, or my mother may suffer."
She rang with a force that must have astonished Michael, and led
him to think some extraordinary character had arrived; for he ran
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: key to worlds divine; they explain existence by reincarnations through
which the human spirit rises to its sublime destiny; they liberate
duty from its legal degradation, enable the soul to meet the trials of
life with the unalterable serenity of the Quaker, ordain contempt for
the sufferings of this life, and inspire a fostering care of that
angel within us who allies us to the divine. It is stoicism with an
immortal future. Active prayer and pure love are the elements of this
faith, which is born of the Roman Church but returns to the
Christianity of the primitive faith. Mademoiselle de Lenoncourt
remained, however, in the Catholic communion, to which her aunt was
equally bound. Cruelly tried by revolutionary horrors, the Duchesse de
The Lily of the Valley |
