| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: which nourishes all things here below? Swedenborg has said, 'The earth
is a man.'
"Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry
indeed beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question
me; our languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to
cast, if it be possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you,
as it were, the hem of my garment and draw you up into the regions of
Prayer. Can God abase Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to
Him? If human reason finds the ladder of its own strength too weak to
bring God down to it, is it not evident that you must find some other
path to reach Him? That Path is in ourselves. The Seer and the
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: look much better no doubt than if they followed a
fashion of which it would seem they had not heard
--and perhaps do not admire. I ventured to pack
two of your excellency's wigs when we were leav-
ing St. Petersburg--"
"Good heavens, no!" cried Rezanov, rising to his
feet and casting a last impatient glance at the mir-
ror. "When a man has escaped from a furnace
does he run back of his own accord? My brain
would cook under a wig in this climate, and I need
all my wits--for more reasons than one." And he
Rezanov |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: it, but with emulation; he fought like a furious tiger, turning
ten times round his adversary, and changing his ground and his
guard twenty times. Jussac was, as was then said, a fine blade,
and had had much practice; nevertheless it required all his skill
to defend himself against an adversary who, active and energetic,
departed every instant from received rules, attacking him on all
sides at once, and yet parrying like a man who had the greatest
respect for his own epidermis.
This contest at length exhausted Jussac's patience. Furious at
being held in check by one whom he had considered a boy, he
became warm and began to make mistakes. D'Artagnan, who though
The Three Musketeers |
