| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: fortune, abundant fortune, can be won. Potosi is in the rue
Vivienne, the rue de la Paix, the Place Vendome, the rue de
Rivoli. In all other places and countries material works and
labors, marches and counter-marches, and sweatings of the brow are
necessary to the building up of fortune; but in Paris THOUGHT
suffices. Here, every man even mentally mediocre, can see a mine
of wealth as he puts on his slippers, or picks his teeth after
dinner, in his down-sitting and his up-rising. Find me another
place on the globe where a good round stupid idea brings in more
money, or is sooner understood than it is here.
If I reach the top of the ladder, as I shall, am I the man to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of
the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different
parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain
face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile,
must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make
that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than
friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced
between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war,
you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: am arriving rather, for the journey is long, and 'where I walk
there are thorns.'
Of course I know that to ask alms on the highway is not to be my
lot, and that if ever I lie in the cool grass at night-time it will
be to write sonnets to the moon. When I go out of prison, R- will
be waiting for me on the other side of the big iron-studded gate,
and he is the symbol, not merely of his own affection, but of the
affection of many others besides. I believe I am to have enough to
live on for about eighteen months at any rate, so that if I may not
write beautiful books, I may at least read beautiful books; and
what joy can be greater? After that, I hope to be able to recreate
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