| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: musician of himself; and in Rome Sylvain Pons acquired a taste for the
antique and works of art. He became an admirable judge of those
masterpieces of the brain and hand which are summed up by the useful
neologism "bric-a-brac;" and when the child of Euterpe returned to
Paris somewhere about the year 1810, it was in the character of a
rabid collector, loaded with pictures, statuettes, frames, wood-
carving, ivories, enamels, porcelains, and the like. He had sunk the
greater part of his patrimony, not so much in the purchases themselves
as on the expenses of transit; and every penny inherited from his
mother had been spent in the course of a three-years' travel in Italy
after the residence in Rome came to an end. He had seen Venice, Milan,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: "as it will get thee, callow as thou art, out of my Lord Fox's
clutches. Our faction cannot do without the Earl of Mackworth's
cunning wits, Sir Myles; ne'theless I would not like to put all
my fate and fortune into his hands without bond. I hope that thou
dost not rest thy fortunes entirely upon his aid and
countenance."
All who were present felt the discomfort of the Prince's speech,
It was evident that one of his mad, wild humors was upon him. In
another case the hare-brained young courtiers around might have
taken their cue from him, but the Earl of Mackworth was no
subject for their gibes and witticisms. A constrained silence
Men of Iron |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: risks, not even to their property; that after all they were
not so noble but they treated the thief as he had treated
them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance and a few
prayers, and by walking in a particular straight through
useless path from time to time, to save their souls.
This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe
that many of them are not aware that they have such an
institution as the jail in their village.
It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor
debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute
him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed to
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
