| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: might be many such heroes, for many have the wish to live for
similar ideals, and only the adequate degree of
inhibition-quenching fury is lacking.[146]
[146] The great thing which the higher excitabilities give is
COURAGE; and the addition or subtraction of a certain amount of
this quality makes a different man, a different life. Various
excitements let the courage loose. Trustful hope will do it;
inspiring example will do it; love will do it, wrath will do it.
In some people it is natively so high that the mere touch of
danger does it, though danger is for most men the great inhibitor
of action. "Love of adventure" becomes in such persons a ruling
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: difficult to detect whether this squalor covered vice or the
highest virtue, as to decide whether Adelaide's mother was an old
coquette accustomed to weigh, to calculate, to sell everything,
or a loving woman, full of noble feeling and amiable qualities.
But at Schinner's age the first impulse of the heart is to
believe in goodness. And indeed, as he studied Adelaide's noble
and almost haughty brow, as he looked into her eyes full of soul
and thought, he breathed, so to speak, the sweet and modest
fragrance of virtue. In the course of the conversation he seized
an opportunity of discussing portraits in general, to give
himself a pretext for examining the frightful pastel, of which
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me
out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited
regions I am about to explore. But to return to dearer considerations.
Shall I meet you again, after having traversed immense seas, and returned
by the most southern cape of Africa or America? I dare not expect such
success, yet I cannot bear to look on the reverse of the picture.
Continue for the present to write to me by every opportunity: I may
receive your letters on some occasions when I need them most to support
my spirits. I love you very tenderly. Remember me with affection,
should you never hear from me again.
Your affectionate brother,
Frankenstein |
