| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: sight of his master going into the church at about nine in the
morning. Desplein, who at that time never went a step without his
cab, was on foot, and slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-
Lion, as if he were stealing into some house of ill fame. The
house surgeon, naturally possessed by curiosity, knowing his
master's opinions, and being himself a rabid follower of Cabanis
(Cabaniste en dyable, with the y, which in Rabelais seems to
convey an intensity of devilry)--Bianchon stole into the church,
and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, the
atheist, who had no mercy on the angels--who give no work to the
lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis--in short,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: them turning round somehow or other upon the main hinges of his subject,
and added to his work as so many illustrations upon the doctrines of noses.
As we have leisure enough upon our hands--if you give me leave, madam, I'll
tell you the ninth tale of his tenth decad.
Slawkenbergii Fabella (As Hafen Slawkenbergius de Nasis is extremely
scarce, it may not be unacceptable to the learned reader to see the
specimen of a few pages of his original; I will make no reflection upon it,
but that his story-telling Latin is much more concise than his philosophic-
-and, I think, has more of Latinity in it.)
Vespera quadam frigidula, posteriori in parte mensis Augusti, peregrinus,
mulo fusco colore incidens, mantica a tergo, paucis indusiis, binis
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: surface of the globe. O, unhappy! - there is a big word and a
false - continue to be not nearly - by about twenty per cent. - so
happy as they might be: that would be nearer the mark.
When - observe that word, which I will write again and larger -
WHEN you come to see us in Samoa, you will see for yourself a
healthy and happy people.
You see, you are one of the very few of our friends rich enough to
come and see us; and when my house is built, and the road is made,
and we have enough fruit planted and poultry and pigs raised, it is
undeniable that you must come - must is the word; that is the way
in which I speak to ladies. You and Fairchild, anyway - perhaps my
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