| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows
himself, but rarely."
"Why?" asked Celeste.
The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he
explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and
bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives
were sedentary.
"So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?"
"Not unless she waits some years," replied the doctor. "But then, of
course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests."
The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: tale may have had of interest and poesy with the coolness of writers
who forget to put on the title pages of their books: "Translated from
the German."
THOUGHT AND ACT
Toward the end of Venemiaire, year VII., a republican period which in
the present day corresponds to October 20, 1799, two young men,
leaving Bonn in the early morning, had reached by nightfall the
environs of Andernach, a small town standing on the left bank of the
Rhine a few leagues from Coblentz. At that time the French army,
commanded by Augereau, was manoeuvring before the Austrians, who then
occupied the right bank of the river. The headquarters of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: bleeding in a dozen places from the wounds of the thorns.
"Ah, that will content you for a time, I trust," said Marvel. "Now
follow me, and we will ride along beside the hedge until we find an
opening. For either it will come to an end or there will prove to be
a way through it to the other side."
So they rode alongside the hedge for hour after hour; yet it did not
end, nor could they espy any way to get through the thickly matted
briers. By and by night fell, and they tethered their horses to some
shrubs, where there were a few scanty blades of grass for them to
crop, and then laid themselves down upon the ground, with bare rocks
for pillows, where they managed to sleep soundly until morning.
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
