| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: let nothing be done without their permission. They are unhappy if
others are happy; they forgive nothing but vices, downfalls,
frailties, and like none but proteges. Aristocrats by inclination,
they make themselves democrats out of spite, preferring to consort
with inferiors as equals.
"Oh, Madame Firmiani, my dear fellow! she is one of those adorable
women who serve as Nature's excuse for all the ugly ones she creates.
Madame Firmiani is enchanting, and so kind! I wish I were in power and
possessed millions that I might--" (here a whisper). "Shall I present
you?" The speaker is a youth of the Student species, known for his
boldness among men and his timidity in a boudoir.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: heard you moving about. Ah, Fraulein, that I must disturb you!"
"Something has happened!" exclaimed Harmony, thinking of Peter,
of course.
"Not yet. I fear it is about to happen. Fraulein, do me the honor
to open your window. My pigeon comes now to you to be fed, and I
fear--on the sill, Fraulein."
Harmony opened the window. The wild pigeons scattered at once,
but the carrier, flying out a foot or two, came back promptly and
set about its breakfast.
"Will he let me catch him?"
"Pardon, Fraulein, If I may enter--"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: opposite will turn out to be the truth. My opinion is that in attacking
you he is simply aiming a blow at the foundation of the state. But in what
way does he say that you corrupt the young?
SOCRATES: He brings a wonderful accusation against me, which at first
hearing excites surprise: he says that I am a poet or maker of gods, and
that I invent new gods and deny the existence of old ones; this is the
ground of his indictment.
EUTHYPHRO: I understand, Socrates; he means to attack you about the
familiar sign which occasionally, as you say, comes to you. He thinks that
you are a neologian, and he is going to have you up before the court for
this. He knows that such a charge is readily received by the world, as I
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