| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: country, might be saved from the abyss that yawns; into which we are
rushing headlong, through spiritual indifference to all that is not
our own self-interest. Change! you must change your morals, change
your ethics, and that will change your laws."
Though deeply moved as she listened to this grand utterance of true
catholic charity, the countess answered in the fatal words, "We will
consider it,"--words of the rich, which contain that promise to the
ear which saves their purses and enables them to stand with arms
crossed in presence of all disaster, under pretext that they were
powerless.
Hearing those words, the abbe bowed to Madame de Montcornet and turned
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: render her skilful, loyal, serviceable, till she is worth her weight
in gold; or again, when occasion serves, you have it in your power to
requite by kindness the well-behaved whose presence is a blessing to
your house; or maybe to chasten the bad character, should such an one
appear. But the greatest joy of all will be to prove yourself my
better; to make me your faithful follower; knowing no dread lest as
the years advance you should decline in honour in your household, but
rather trusting that, though your hair turn gray, yet, in proportion
as you come to be a better helpmate to myself and to the children, a
better guardian of our home, so will your honour increase throughout
the household as mistress, wife, and mother, daily more dearly prized.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us
spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never
yet had so fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at
least could accomplish it.
Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be
thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that
falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast,
gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company
go, let the bells ring and the children cry -- determined to make a
day of it. Why should we knock under and go with the stream? Let
us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool
Walden |
