| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: Aquilina was lying luxuriously back in a great armchair by the
fireside, beguiling the time by chatting with her waiting-maid. As
frequently happens in such cases the maid had become the mistress'
confidant, Jenny having first assured herself that her mistress'
ascendency over Castanier was complete.
"What are we to do this evening? Leon seems determined to come," Mme.
de la Garde was saying, as she read a passionate epistle indited upon
a faint gray notepaper.
"Here is the master!" said Jenny.
Castanier came in. Aquilina, nowise disconcerted, crumpled up the
letter, took it with the tongs, and held it in the flames.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: it, and to tell you the truth, I am surprised that people are so
pleased with such ordinary and empty stuff."
The same year he wrote to Fet:
"It is two months since I have defiled my hands with ink or
my heart with thoughts. But now I am setting to work again on my
tedious, vulgar 'Anna Karénina,' with only one
wish, to clear it out of the way as soon as possible and give
myself leisure for other occupations, but not schoolmastering,
which I am fond of, but wish to give up; it takes up too much
time."
In 1878, when the novel was nearing its end, he wrote again
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: corrupt their souls, but in a land of health and beauty where they will
drink in from every object sweet and harmonious influences. And of all
these influences the greatest is the education given by music, which finds
a way into the innermost soul and imparts to it the sense of beauty and of
deformity. At first the effect is unconscious; but when reason arrives,
then he who has been thus trained welcomes her as the friend whom he always
knew. As in learning to read, first we acquire the elements or letters
separately, and afterwards their combinations, and cannot recognize
reflections of them until we know the letters themselves;--in like manner
we must first attain the elements or essential forms of the virtues, and
then trace their combinations in life and experience. There is a music of
The Republic |
