| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: famous Cafe de la Paix, the characteristics of which, together with
the fascinations of its Tivoli, will require, somewhat later, a less
succinct description than that we have given of the Soudry mansion.
Rigou very seldom came to Soulanges; everybody was in the habit of
going to him,--Lupin and Gaubertin, Soudry and Gendrin,--so much were
they afraid of him. But we shall presently understand why any educated
man, such as the ex-Benedictine, would have done as Rigou did, and
kept away from the little town, after reading the following sketch of
the personages who composed what was called in those parts "the
leading society of Soulanges."
Of its principal figures, the most original, as you have already
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: brother, unkind and ungenerous to all his relatives--Isabel, I
would die rather than have him."
"Don't let my father hear you give me such advice," said Miss
Vere, "or adieu, my dear Lucy, to Ellieslaw Castle."
"And adieu to Ellieslaw Castle, with all my heart," said her
friend, "if I once saw you fairly out of it, and settled under
some kinder protector than he whom nature has given you. O, if
my poor father had been in his former health, how gladly would he
have received and sheltered you, till this ridiculous and cruel
persecution were blown over!"
"Would to God it had been so, my dear Lucy!" answered Isabella;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: mountains for their retreats and lurking-places. Here they may
resemble those great hordes of the North, "Gog and Magog with
their bands," that haunted the gloomy imaginations of the
prophets. "A great company and a mighty host, all riding upon
horses, and warring upon those nations which were at rest, and
dwelt peaceably, and had gotten cattle and goods."
The Spaniards changed the whole character and habits of the
Indians when they brought the horse among them. In Chili,
Tucuman, and other parts, it has converted them, we are told,
into Tartar-like tribes, and enabled them to keep the Spaniards
out of their country, and even to make it dangerous for them to
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