| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: too late"/ of that fool Lafayette to his royal master? Oh! my life, my
sweet life, what physician will give it back to me. My own hand has
dealt the deathblow. Alas! have I not been a mere will-o'-the-wisp,
whose twinkling spark was fated to perish before it reached a flame?
My eyes rain torrents of tears--and yet they must not fall when I am
with him. I fly to him, and he seeks me. My despair is all within.
This torture Dante forgot to place in his /Inferno./ Come to see me
die!
LVII
THE COMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE TO THE COMTE DE L'ESTORADE
THE CHALET, August 7th.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: any great length of time. Such an army must either march through
friendly territory or it must force a way by victory in battle. The
voyager meanwhile has it in his power to disembark at any point where
he finds himself in superior force, or, at the worst, to coast by
until he reaches either a friendly district or an enemy too weak to
resist. Again, those diseases to which the fruits of the earth are
liable as visitations from heaven fall severely on a land power, but
are scarcely felt by the navel power, for such sicknesses do not visit
the whole earth everywhere at once. So that the ruler of the sea can
get in supplies from a thriving district. And if one may descend to
more trifling particulars, it is to this same lordship of the sea that
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: twopence to keep her on. Ask Sam, if you dont believe me. [To
the parson] How much more money are you going to give him?
REV. S. Not another penny. He has had his patrimony; and he
spent the last of it in July. [Mrs Warren's face falls].
CROFTS [watching her] There! I told you. [He resumes his place
on the settle and puts his legs on the seat again, as if the
matter were finally disposed of].
FRANK [plaintively] This is ever so mercenary. Do you suppose
Miss Warren's going to marry for money? If we love one another--
MRS WARREN. Thank you. Your love's a pretty cheap commodity, my
lad. If you have no means of keeping a wife, that settles it;
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