| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: women would have been capable of a delicacy which deprived them of the
pleasure of bearing in their train a fallen rival, and of publicly
being her benefactress. Thus relieved of the necessity for costly
toilets, the princess could enjoy the theatre, whither she went in
Madame d'Espard's carriage, which she would never have accepted openly
in the daytime. No one has ever known Madame d'Espard's reasons for
behaving thus to the Princesse de Cadignan; but her conduct was
admirable, and for a long time included a number of little acts which,
viewed single, seem mere trifles, but taken in the mass become
gigantic.
In 1832, three years had thrown a mantle of snow over the follies and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: is also a fragment of a former world, which has no place in the philosophy
of modern times. But Plato had the wonders of psychology just opening to
him, and he had not the explanation of them which is supplied by the
analysis of language and the history of the human mind. The question,
'Whence come our abstract ideas?' he could only answer by an imaginary
hypothesis. Nor is it difficult to see that his crowning argument is
purely verbal, and is but the expression of an instinctive confidence put
into a logical form:--'The soul is immortal because it contains a principle
of imperishableness.' Nor does he himself seem at all to be aware that
nothing is added to human knowledge by his 'safe and simple answer,' that
beauty is the cause of the beautiful; and that he is merely reasserting the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the warmed garments and though some were still a trifle
damp he felt infinitely more comfortable than he had for
many hours.
Outside the house he came upon the girl and the
youth standing in the sunshine of a bright, new day.
They were talking together in a most animated man-
ner, and as he approached wondering what the two had
found of so great common interest he discovered that
the discussion hinged upon the relative merits of ham
and bacon as a breakfast dish.
"Oh, my heart it is just achin'," quoted Bridge,
The Oakdale Affair |
