| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: growing success in it, and receive a further reward, unperceived
at first, but very joyful after, in being loved by others.
So I advise you, Friend Ilyá, and both of you, to live
and to think as sincerely as you can, because it is the only way
you can discover if you are really going along the same road, and
whether it is wise to join hands or not; and at the same time, if
you are sincere, you must be making your future ready.
Your purpose in life must not be the joy of wedlock, but, by
your life to bring more love and truth into the world. The object
of marriage is to help one another in the attainment of that
purpose.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: was at a Love-letter. I saw him you know for the first time at
Lady Scudamores--And when I saw her Ladyship afterwards she asked
me how I liked her Cousin Musgrove?
"Why upon my word said I, I think he is a very handsome young
Man."
"I am glad you think so replied she, for he is distractedly in
love with you."
"Law! Lady Scudamore said I, how can you talk so ridiculously?"
"Nay, t'is very true answered she, I assure you, for he was in
love with you from the first moment he beheld you."
"I wish it may be true said I, for that is the only kind of love
Love and Friendship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: disposed to take dull men as the small change for great ones.
Balthazar Claes carried his greatness into the lesser things of life.
He delighted in considering conjugal love as a magnificent work; and
like all men of lofty aims who can bear nothing imperfect, he wished
to develop all its beauties. His powers of mind enlivened the calm of
happiness, his noble nature marked his attentions with the charm of
grace. Though he shared the philosophical tenets of the eighteenth
century, he installed a chaplain in his home until 1801 (in spite of
the risk he ran from the revolutionary decrees), so that he might not
thwart the Spanish fanaticism which his wife had sucked in with her
mother's milk: later, when public worship was restored in France, he
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