| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: to fulfil that futile wish, 'If heaven were to send us twenty thousand
francs a year,'--that silly wish we all make, laughing; to bring
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
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: be soldiers. It will therefore be necessary to force them."
"Very well," replied Ivan, "you may use force if you want to."
The old devil then announced that all the fools must become
soldiers, and those who refused, Ivan would punish with death.
The fools went to the General; and said: "You tell us that Ivan
will punish with death all those who refuse to become soldiers,
but you have omitted to state what will be done with us soldiers.
We have been told that we are only to be killed."
"Yes, that is true," was the reply.
The fools on hearing this became stubborn and refused to go.
"Better kill us now if we cannot avoid death, but we will not
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: as I afterward learned she was considerably the bigger of the two.
She had heard Miss Bordereau was ill and had a suspicion that she
was in want; and she had gone to the house to offer assistance,
so that if there were suffering (and American suffering), she
should at least not have it on her conscience. The "little one"
received her in the great cold, tarnished Venetian sala, the central
hall of the house, paved with marble and roofed with dim crossbeams,
and did not even ask her to sit down. This was not encouraging for me,
who wished to sit so fast, and I remarked as much to Mrs. Prest.
She however replied with profundity, "Ah, but there's all the difference:
I went to confer a favor and you will go to ask one. If they
|
