| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: he had suddenly found himself at the edge of a precipice, he listened,
with fixed, moist eyes in which there was no expression, to the
revelations of his friend, who ended by saying: "I know the wrong I do
in abandoning your cause; but, my dear abbe, family duties must be
considered before those of friendship. Yield, as I do, to this storm,
and I will prove to you my gratitude. I am not talking of your worldly
interests, for those I take charge of. You shall be made free of all
such anxieties for the rest of your life. By means of Monsieur de
Bourbonne, who will know how to save appearances, I shall arrange
matters so that you shall lack nothing. My friend, grant me the right
to abandon you. I shall ever be your friend, though forced to conform
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: must have valued your own happiness the more, and you might have
strengthened me to resist my tyrant, and so have won a sort of peace.
Your misery is an incident which chance may change, but mine is daily
and perpetual. To my husband I am a peg on which to hang his luxury,
the sign-post of his ambition, a satisfaction to his vanity. He has no
real affection for me, and no confidence. Ferdinand is hard and
polished as that piece of marble," she continued, striking the
chimney-piece. "He distrusts me. Whatever I may want for myself is
refused before I ask it; but as for what flatters his vanity and
proclaims his wealth, I have no occasion to express a wish. He
decorates my apartments; he spends enormous sums upon my
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: Y.M. Yes.
O.M. Let us read further, presently. Meantime, in
sacrificing himself--NOT for the glory of God, PRIMARILY, as HE
imagined, but FIRST to content that exacting and inflexible
master within him--DID HE SACRIFICE ANYBODY ELSE?
Y.M. How do you mean?
O.M. He relinquished a lucrative post and got mere food and
lodging in place of it. Had he dependents?
Y.M. Well--yes.
O.M. In what way and to what extend did his self-sacrifice
affect THEM?
What is Man? |
