| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: "He is living in your house," said Troubert, interrupting her.
"No, monsieur, he is no longer there." ("That peerage and my nephew's
promotion force me to do base things," thought she.)
The priest remained impassible, but his calm exterior was an
indication of violent emotion. Monsieur Bourbonne alone had fathomed
the secret of that apparent tranquillity. The priest had triumphed!
"Why did you take upon yourself to bring that relinquishment," he
asked, with a feeling analogous to that which impels a woman to fish
for compliments.
"I could not avoid a feeling of compassion. Birotteau, whose feeble
nature must be well known to you, entreated me to see Madaemoiselle
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: SOCRATES: And further, Euthyphro, the gods were admitted to have enmities
and hatreds and differences?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes, that was also said.
SOCRATES: And what sort of difference creates enmity and anger? Suppose
for example that you and I, my good friend, differ about a number; do
differences of this sort make us enemies and set us at variance with one
another? Do we not go at once to arithmetic, and put an end to them by a
sum?
EUTHYPHRO: True.
SOCRATES: Or suppose that we differ about magnitudes, do we not quickly
end the differences by measuring?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: many bright days and smiling providences; there is surely the
matter of a very eloquent sermon in all this.
On the whole, I was greatly solemnised. In the little pictorial
map of our whole Inland Voyage, which my fancy still preserves, and
sometimes unrolls for the amusement of odd moments, Noyon cathedral
figures on a most preposterous scale, and must be nearly as large
as a department. I can still see the faces of the priests as if
they were at my elbow, and hear AVE MARIA, ORA PRO NOBIS, sounding
through the church. All Noyon is blotted out for me by these
superior memories; and I do not care to say more about the place.
It was but a stack of brown roofs at the best, where I believe
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