| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: deceive you; he neither can nor will marry any woman except--"
"Ah!"
"Yes, mademoiselle, he has accepted his dangerous mission to win the
hand of Mademoiselle d'Uxelles, a marriage to which his Majesty has
promised his countenance."
"Ah! ah!"
Mademoiselle de Verneuil added not a word to that scornful
ejaculation. The young and handsome Chevalier du Vissard, eager to be
forgiven for the joke which had led to the insults at La Vivetiere,
now came up to her and respectfully invited her to dance. She placed
her hand in his, and they took their places in a quadrille opposite to
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: Christ as a coat of salvation and garment of gladness, how shall
I again clothe these in their coats of hide, and gird them about
with the covering of shame? But be assured that my companions
have no need of such things, but are content with their hard life
in the desert, and reckon it the truest luxury; and bestow thou
on the poor the money and garments which thou promisedst to give
unto our monks, and lay up for thyself, for the time to come,
treasure that cannot be stolen, and by the orisons of these poor
folk make God thine ally; for thus shalt thou employ thy riches
as an help toward noble things. Then also put on the whole
armour of the Spirit, having thy loins girt about with truth, and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: silent for ever; but I sing just as the birds do, and my songs
are as ephemeral." It is for this bird-like quality of song, it
seems to me, that they are to be valued. They hint, in a sort of
delicately evasive way, at a rare temperament, the temperament of
a woman of the East, finding expression through a Western
language and under partly Western influences. They do not
express the whole of that temperament; but they express, I think,
its essence; and there is an Eastern magic in them.
Sarojini Chattopadhyay was born at Hyderabad on February 13,
1879. Her father, Dr. Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, is descended
from the ancient family of Chattorajes of Bhramangram, who were
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