| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: Fearing that such a reaction might cause a new revolution, Louis
XVIII. was reduced to dissolving the Chamber. The election
having returned moderate deputies, he was able to continue to
govern with the same principles, understanding very well that any
attempt to govern the French by the ancien regime would be
enough to provoke a general rebellion.
Unfortunately, his death, in 1824, placed Charles X., formerly
Comte d'Artois, on the throne. Extremely narrow, incapable of
understanding the new world which surrounded him, and boasting
that he had not modified his ideas since 1789, he prepared a
series of reactionary laws--a law by which an indemnity of forty
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: unscathed or scale a parapet,[3] or gallop down a bank, and hurl a
javelin with the best. These are accomplishments which one and all
will pave the way to make contempt impossible. If, further, the men
shall see in their commander one who, with the knowledge how to act,
has force of will and cunning to make them get the better of the
enemy; and if, further, they have got the notion well into their heads
that this same leader may be trusted not to lead them recklesssly
against the foe, without the help of Heaven, or despite the auspices--
I say, you have a list of virtues which will make those under his
command the more obedient to their ruler.
[3] Or, "stone walls," "dykes."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: cross, the vessels, the chalice, secretly brought thither by the
priest, the fumes of incense rising to the ceiling, the priest
himself, who wore a stole above his cassock, the tapers on an altar in
a salon,--all these things combined to form a strange and touching
scene, which typified those times of saddest memory, when civil
discord overthrew all sacred institutions. Religious ceremonies then
had the savor of the mysteries. Children were baptized in the chambers
where the mothers were still groaning from their labor. As in the
olden time, the Saviour went, poor and lowly, to console the dying.
Young girls received their first communion in the home where they had
played since infancy. The marriage of the marquis and Mademoiselle de
The Chouans |
