| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: one; for you would not willingly hear me detail before gentlemen,
and men of honour, the singular circumstances in which our
connexion took its rise. As to the rest, I rejoice at its
conclusion; and as I think that Mr. Mareschal and some other
gentlemen will guarantee the safety of my ears and of my throat
(for which last I have more reason to be apprehensive) during the
course of the night, I shall not leave your castle till to-morrow
morning."
"Be it so, sir," replied Mr. Vere; "you are entirely safe from my
resentment, because you are beneath it, and not because I am
afraid of your disclosing my family secrets, although, for your
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: merely the feeling usually so called, but the mystical contemplation of the
beautiful and the good. The same passion which may wallow in the mire is
capable of rising to the loftiest heights--of penetrating the inmost secret
of philosophy. The highest love is the love not of a person, but of the
highest and purest abstraction. This abstraction is the far-off heaven on
which the eye of the mind is fixed in fond amazement. The unity of truth,
the consistency of the warring elements of the world, the enthusiasm for
knowledge when first beaming upon mankind, the relativity of ideas to the
human mind, and of the human mind to ideas, the faith in the invisible, the
adoration of the eternal nature, are all included, consciously or
unconsciously, in Plato's doctrine of love.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: minutes more and he MUST be here; for I know he is living. I am
certain of it, my heart says so. Don't you hear something, Brigitte? I
would give the rest of my life to know at this moment whether he were
still in prison, or out in the free country. Oh! I wish I could stop
thinking--"
She again examined the room to see if all were in order. A good fire
burned on the hearth, the shutters were carefully closed, the
furniture shone with rubbing; even the manner in which the bed was
made showed that the countess had assisted Brigitte in every detail;
her hopes were uttered in the delicate care given to that room where
she expected to fold her son in her arms. A mother alone could have
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