| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: plaything of everything that comes to hand. As yet the graces of youth
and the charms of talent hid these faults from every eye; faults all
the more odious in a woman, since she can only please by self-
sacrifice and unselfishness; but nothing escapes the eye of a good
father, and Monsieur de Fontaine often tried to explain to his
daughter the more important pages of the mysterious book of life. Vain
effort! He had to lament his daughter's capricious indocility and
ironical shrewdness too often to persevere in a task so difficult as
that of correcting an ill-disposed nature. He contented himself with
giving her from time to time some gentle and kind advice; but he had
the sorrow of seeing his tenderest words slide from his daughter's
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: Havre. Here they build their houses on terraces around its ampitheatre
of hills, and breathe the sea air laden with the fragrance of their
splendid gardens. Here these bold speculators cast off the burden of
their counting-rooms and the atmosphere of their city houses, which
are built closely together without open spaces, often without court-
yards,--a vice of construction with the increasing population of
Havre, the inflexible line of the fortifications, and the enlargement
of the docks has forced upon them. The result is, weariness of heart
in Havre, cheerfulness and joy at Ingouville. The law of social
development has forced up the suburb of Graville like a mushroom. It
is to-day more extensive than Havre itself, which lies at the foot of
Modeste Mignon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: clay like our own. It has been thus assuredly; for so hath man
ever fallen, even since the days of Sultan Adam."
"And if it were so, physician," said Sir Kenneth sullenly, "what
remedy?"
"Knowledge is the parent of power," said El Hakim, "as valour
supplies strength. Listen to me. Man is not as a tree, bound to
one spot of earth; nor is he framed to cling to one bare rock,
like the scarce animated shell-fish. Thine own Christian
writings command thee, when persecuted in one city, to flee to
another; and we Moslem also know that Mohammed, the Prophet of
Allah, driven forth from the holy city of Mecca, found his refuge
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