| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: are the only man in the kingdom whom I would trust for such a service;
and I will try to prove my gratitude for your goodness, by doing my
utmost to promote the marriage of the Burgundian heiress with
Monseigneur. She will bring you a noble treasure, not of money, but of
lands, which will round out the glory of your crown."
"There, there, Dutchman, you are trying to hoodwink me," said the
king, with frowning brows, "or else you have already done so."
"Sire! can you doubt my devotion? you, who are the only man I love!"
"All that is talk," returned the king, looking the other in the eyes.
"You need not have waited till this moment to do me that service. You
are selling me your influence--Pasques-Dieu! to me, Louis XI.! Are you
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: keep him dreading either a rise or fall."
"You think you can laugh at me, great man," returned Vauvinet, once
more jovial and caressing; "you've turned La Fontaine's fable of 'Le
Chene et le Roseau' into an elixir-- Come, Gubetta, my old
accomplice," he continued, seizing Bixiou round the waist, "you want
money; well, I can borrow three thousand francs from my friend Cerizet
instead of two; 'Let us be friends, Cinna!' hand over your colossal
cabbages,--made to trick the public like a gardener's catalogue. If I
refused you it was because it is pretty hard on a man who can only do
his poor little business by turning over his money, to have to keep
your Ravenouillet notes in the drawer of his desk. Hard, hard, very
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: ardent preference for the brave adventurers, whom they regarded as the
true fount of honor, wealth, or pleasure; and in the eyes of young
girls, an epaulette--the hieroglyphic of a future--signified happiness
and liberty.
One feature, and a characteristic one, of this unique period in our
history was an unbridled mania for everything glittering. Never were
fireworks so much in vogue, never were diamonds so highly prized. The
men, as greedy as the women of these translucent pebbles, displayed
them no less lavishly. Possibly the necessity for carrying plunder in
the most portable form made gems the fashion in the army. A man was
not ridiculous then, as he would be now, if his shirt-frill or his
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