| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: there? By what decree has salt been sown on this dwelling? Has God
been mocked here? Or was France betrayed? These are the questions we
ask ourselves. Reptiles crawl over it, but give no reply. This empty
and deserted house is a vast enigma of which the answer is known to
none.
"It was formerly a little domain, held in fief, and is known as La
Grande Breteche. During my stay at Vendome, where Despleins had left
me in charge of a rich patient, the sight of this strange dwelling
became one of my keenest pleasures. Was it not far better than a ruin?
Certain memories of indisputable authenticity attach themselves to a
ruin; but this house, still standing, though being slowly destroyed by
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: Symposium and Republic of absolute beauty and good; but he never supposed
that they were capable of being embodied in words. Of the names of the
ideas, he would have said, as he says of the names of the Gods, that we
know nothing. Even the realism of Cratylus is not based upon the ideas of
Plato, but upon the flux of Heracleitus. Here, as in the Sophist and
Politicus, Plato expressly draws attention to the want of agreement in
words and things. Hence we are led to infer, that the view of Socrates is
not the less Plato's own, because not based upon the ideas; 2nd, that
Plato's theory of language is not inconsistent with the rest of his
philosophy.
2. We do not deny that Socrates is partly in jest and partly in earnest.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: Lousteau, saw that he was dressed as the most fastidious dandy might
have been.
"You are the only person in the world who can help me, or hold out a
plank to me--for I am drowning, and have already swallowed more than
one mouthful----" said he, standing still in front of Dinah, and
seeming to yield to an overpowering impulse. "Since you see me here,
it is because my affairs are going to the devil."
"That is enough," said she; "I understand."
There was another pause, during which Lousteau turned away, took out
his handkerchief, and seemed to wipe away a tear.
"How much do you want, Etienne," she went on in motherly tones. "We
The Muse of the Department |
