| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: his labours and sufferings. It is not in my power to represent the
different passions they were affected with at seeing us pale,
meagre, without clothes--in a word, almost naked and almost dead
with fatigue and ill-usage. They could not behold us in that
miserable condition without reflecting on the hardships we had
undergone, and our brethren then underwent, in Suaquem and
Abyssinia. Amidst their thanks to God for our deliverance, they
could not help lamenting the condition of the patriarch and the
other missionaries who were in chains, or, at least, in the hands of
professed enemies to our holy religion. All this did not hinder
them from testifying in the most obliging manner their joy for our
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: may surely learn, at least, how, at present, conveniently to live in
it. What will THEY say to us, or show us by example? These kings--
these councillors--these statesmen and builders of kingdoms--these
capitalists and men of business, who weigh the earth, and the dust
of it, in a balance. They know the world, surely; and what is the
mystery of life to us, is none to them. They can surely show us how
to live, while we live, and to gather out of the present world what
is best.
I think I can best tell you their answer, by telling you a dream I
had once. For though I am no poet, I have dreams sometimes:- I
dreamed I was at a child's Mayday party, in which every means of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: manor-house, which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets
and gables, she laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and
lawns, and divided it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under
creepers. She also made everything within doors as comfortable as
their narrow circumstances allowed.
In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah
seemed to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say nothing
as to the recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his
money matters gave a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him
dignity in his wife's eyes during the first years of their married
life--so majestic is silence!
The Muse of the Department |
