| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: opulence to a family sitting by the light of one miserable lamp over a
poor turf fire!--no, words cannot describe it. My extreme justice
seemed to them unjust. Well! if there is a Paradise my father is happy
in it now. As for me, I am loved as no man was ever loved yet. Madame
Firmiani gives me more than happiness; she has inspired me with a
delicacy of feeling I think I lacked. So I call her MY DEAR
CONSCIENCE,--a love-word which expresses certain secret harmonies
within our hearts. I find honesty profitable; I shall get rich in time
by myself. I've an industrial scheme in my head, and if it succeeds I
shall earn millions."
"Ah! my boy, you have your mother's soul," said the old man, his eyes
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: Abyssinia. I have often spent the hours which the Princess gave to
my own disposal in adjusting ceremonies and regulating the Court; I
have repressed the pride of the powerful and granted the petitions
of the poor; I have built new palaces in more happy situations,
planted groves upon the tops of mountains, and have exulted in the
beneficence of royalty, till, when the Princess entered, I had
almost forgotten to bow down before her."
"And I," said the Princess, "will not allow myself any more to play
the shepherdess in my waking dreams. I have often soothed my
thoughts with the quiet and innocence of pastoral employments, till
I have in my chamber heard the winds whistle and the sheep bleat;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: Umslopogaas should look upon her dead, lest he also should die from
the sight, and because of his desire to follow her. Also I buried
Galazi the Wolf in the cave, and set the Watcher in his hand, and
there they both sleep who are friends at last, the Lily and the Wolf
together. Ah! when shall there be such another man and such another
maid?
At length on the third day Umslopogaas spoke, asking for Nada. I
pointed to the earth, and he remembered and understood. Thereafter the
strength of Umslopogaas gathered on him slowly, and the hole in his
skull skinned over. But now his hair was grizzled, and he scarcely
smiled again, but grew even more grim and stern than he had been
Nada the Lily |
