| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: conscientious education of the /bourgeoisie/; between religion and
fancy-balls; between two political faiths, between Louis XVIII., who
saw only the present, and Charles X., who looked too far into the
future; it was moreover bound to accept the will of the king, though
the king was deceiving and tricking it. This unfortunate youth, blind
and yet clear-sighted, was counted as nothing by old men jealously
keeping the reins of the State in their feeble hands, while the
monarchy could have been saved by their retirement and the accession
of this Young France, which the old doctrinaires, the /emigres/ of the
Restoration, still speak of slightingly. Auguste de Maulincour was a
victim to the ideas which weighed in those days upon French youth, and
Ferragus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: household altar in the glens of Scotland; and all around the world,
where the spirit of prayer is, there is peace. The genius of the
Scotch has made many contributions to literature, but none I think,
more precious, and none that comes closer to the heart, than the
prayer which Robert Louis Stevenson wrote for his family in distant
Samoa, the night before he died:--
"We beseech thee, Lord, to behold us with favour, folk of many
families and nations, gathered together in the peace of this roof:
weak men and women subsisting under the covert of thy patience. Be
patient still; suffer us yet a while longer--with our broken
promises of good, with our idle endeavours against evil--suffer us
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Which is the second in a line of stars
That seem a sword beneath a belt of three,
I never gazed upon it but I dreamt
Of some vast charm concluded in that star
To make fame nothing. Wherefore, if I fear,
Giving you power upon me through this charm,
That you might play me falsely, having power,
However well ye think ye love me now
(As sons of kings loving in pupilage
Have turned to tyrants when they came to power)
I rather dread the loss of use than fame;
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