| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: hear me, Monsieur Vernier, dyer?"
Such was the harangue which Gaudissart prepared as he went along, as a
tragedian makes ready for his entrance on the scene.
"What!" cried Vernier, delighted at the presence of an audience, "do
you think we have no right to make fun of a man who comes here, bag
and baggage, and demands that we hand over our property because,
forsooth, he is pleased to call us great men, painters, artists,
poets,--mixing us up gratuitously with a set of fools who have neither
house nor home, nor sous nor sense? Why should we put up with a rascal
who comes here and wants us to feather his nest by subscribing to a
newspaper which preaches a new religion whose first doctrine is, if
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: claim. This, at least, is wrong. And not less wrong--perhaps even
more foolishly wrong (for I will anticipate thus far what I hope to
prove)--is the idea that woman is only the shadow and attendant
image of her lord, owing him a thoughtless and servile obedience,
and supported altogether in her weakness by the pre-eminence of his
fortitude.
This, I say, is the most foolish of all errors respecting her who
was made to be the helpmate of man. As if he could be helped
effectively by a shadow, or worthily by a slave!
Let us try, then, whether we cannot get at some clear and harmonious
idea (it must be harmonious if it is true) of what womanly mind and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: Spirits flitted by, and when they found the wondering Elf, they
gathered round him, bringing pearl-shells heaped with precious stones,
and all the rare, strange gifts that lie beneath the sea. But Thistle
wished for none of these, and when his tale was told, the kindly
Spirits pitied him; and little Pearl sighed, as she told him of the
long and weary task he must perform, ere he could win a crown of
snow-white pearls like those they wore. But Thistle had gained
strength and courage in his wanderings, and did not falter now, when
they led bim to a place among the coral-workers, and told him he must
labor here, till the spreading branches reached the light and air,
through the waves that danced above.
Flower Fables |
