| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: herself. Never had the young artist done so remarkable a work. Aside
from the resemblance, the glow of her beauty, the purity of her
feelings, the happiness of love were there depicted by a sort of
magic. This masterpiece of her art and her joy was a votive offering
to their wedded felicity.
Another year of ease and comfort went by. The history of their life
may be given in three words: THEY WERE HAPPY. No event happened to
them of sufficient importance to be recorded.
CHAPTER VI
RETRIBUTION
At the beginning of the year 1819 the picture-dealers requested
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: the Gods for what they do not give; and that, although they have
given us so many things!
XXXVI
Asked how a man might convince himself that every single act
of his was under the eye of God, Epictetus answered:--
"Do you not hold that things on earth and things in heaven
are continuous and in unison with each other?"
"I do," was the reply.
"Else how should the trees so regularly, as though by God's
command, at His bidding flower; at His bidding send forth shoots,
bear fruit and ripen it; at His bidding let it fall and shed
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Nor of one kind alone are sturdy elms,
Willow and lotus, nor the cypress-trees
Of Ida; nor of self-same fashion spring
Fat olives, orchades, and radii
And bitter-berried pausians, no, nor yet
Apples and the forests of Alcinous;
Nor from like cuttings are Crustumian pears
And Syrian, and the heavy hand-fillers.
Not the same vintage from our trees hangs down,
Which Lesbos from Methymna's tendril plucks.
Vines Thasian are there, Mareotids white,
Georgics |
