| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: how I honour you for such Noble Sentiments!"
"Do you Ma'am said I; You are vastly obliging. But pray Lady
Scudamore did your Cousin himself tell you of his affection for
me I shall like him the better if he did, for what is a Lover
without a Confidante?"
"Oh! my Love replied she, you were born for each other. Every
word you say more deeply convinces me that your Minds are
actuated by the invisible power of simpathy, for your opinions
and sentiments so exactly coincide. Nay, the colour of your Hair
is not very different. Yes my dear Girl, the poor despairing
Musgrove did reveal to me the story of his Love--. Nor was I
Love and Friendship |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: doubt, the tales of Hoffmann and the novels of Walter Scott. She was
the only daughter of the banker, a charming young creature whose
education was then being finished at the Gymnase, the plays of which
she adored. At this moment the guests were in that happy state of
laziness and silence which follows a delicious dinner, especially if
we have presumed too far on our digestive powers. Leaning back in
their chairs, their wrists lightly resting on the edge of the table,
they were indolently playing with the gilded blades of their dessert-
knives. When a dinner comes to this declining moment some guests will
be seen to play with a pear seed; others roll crumbs of bread between
their fingers and thumbs; lovers trace indistinct letters with
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: And do you think, said the youth, that doing good things is like building a
house,--the work of human agency; or do things remain what they were at
first, good or bad, for all time?
Prodicus began to suspect, I fancy, the direction which the argument was
likely to take, and did not wish to be put down by a mere stripling before
all those present:--(if they two had been alone, he would not have
minded):--so he answered, cleverly enough: I think that doing good things
is a work of human agency.
And is virtue in your opinion, Prodicus, innate or acquired by instruction?
The latter, said Prodicus.
Then you would consider him a simpleton who supposed that he could obtain
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