| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: And where the family it rules
What riches will accrue!
The neighbourhood where it prevails
In thriving will abound;
And when 'tis seen throughout the state,
Good fortune will be found.
Employ it the kingdom o'er,
And men thrive all around.
3. In this way the effect will be seen in the person, by the
observation of different cases; in the family; in the neighbourhood;
in the state; and in the kingdom.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: secrecy to make them three times renewed, cravats costing ten francs,
and lasting three months, four waistcoats at twenty-five francs, and
trousers fitting close to the boots. How could he do otherwise, since
we see women in Paris bestowing their special attention on simpletons
who visit them, and cut out the most remarkable men by means of these
frivolous advantages, which a man can buy for fifteen louis, and get
his hair curled and a fine linen shirt into the bargain?
If this unhappy youth should seem to you to have become a /lion/ on
very cheap terms, you must know that Amedee de Soulas had been three
times to Switzerland, by coach and in short stages, twice to Paris,
and once from Paris to England. He passed as a well-informed traveler,
Albert Savarus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: arms and legs on the rack, and lopped them off. But those
blessed, shamefast, noble-hearted men went bravely to torture
like guests to a banquet, exhorting one another to meet death for
Christ his sake undaunted.
In such divers tortures did these holy monks lay down their lives
for the Lord. They were in all seventeen. By common consent,
the pious mind is superior to sufferings, as hath been said by
one, but not of us, when narrating the martydom of the aged
priest, and of the seven sons with their equally brave mother
when contending for the law of their fathers: whose bravery and
lofty spirit, however, was equalled by these marvellous fathers
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