| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: escape from nothingness. I consumed more oil than bread; the
light I burned during these endless nights cost me more than
food. It was a long duel, obstinate, with no sort of consolation.
I found no sympathy anywhere. To have friends, must we not form
connections with young men, have a few sous so as to be able to
go tippling with them, and meet them where students congregate?
And I had nothing! And no one in Paris can understand that
nothing means NOTHING. When I even thought of revealing my
beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which makes
a sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into
the larynx.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: shall be done, or I will die.'
"She let fall a few happy tears on his hand as she kissed it.
" 'You have told me what I must do to be your mistress still,' she
added; 'I am glad.'
" 'And then' (La Palferine told us) 'she went out with a little
coquettish gesture like a woman that has had her way. As she stood in
my garrett doorway, tall and proud, she seemed to reach the stature of
an antique sibyl.'
"All this should sufficiently explain the manners and customs of the
Bohemia in which the young /condottiere/ is one of the most brilliant
figures," Nathan continued after a pause. "Now it so happened that I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: handsome priests there. She might very well stop for a short time
beneath the shadow the belfry of Marmoustiers; she would soon be
fertile, those good fathers are so lively."
"By a nun's oath!" said a tramp walking up, "look; the Sire de
Montsoreau is lively and delicate enough to open the lady's heart, the
more so as he is well formed to do so."
And all commenced a laugh. The Sire de Montsoreau wished to go to them
and hang them in lime-tree by the road as a punishment for their bad
words, but Blanche cried out quickly--
"Oh, sir, do not hang them yet. They have not said all they mean; and
we shall see them on our return."
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
