| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: own heart and condemn you for a thief. Have you a salary?
If you trifle with your health, and so render yourself less
capable for duty, and still touch, and still greedily pocket
the emolument - what are you but a thief? Have you double
accounts? do you by any time-honoured juggle, deceit, or
ambiguous process, gain more from those who deal with you
than it you were bargaining and dealing face to face in front
of God? - What are you but a thief? Lastly, if you fill an
office, or produce an article, which, in your heart of
hearts, you think a delusion and a fraud upon mankind, and
still draw your salary and go through the sham manoeuvres of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: "You French, who carried through such a bloodthirsty revolution, who
crushed your aristocracy under the paw of the lion mob, on the day
when this oratorio is performed in your capital, you will understand
this glorious dirge of the victims on whom God is avenging his chosen
people. None but an Italian could have written this pregnant and
inexhaustible theme--truly Dantesque. Do you think that it is nothing
to have such a dream of vengeance, even for a moment? Handel,
Sebastian Bach, all you old German masters, nay, even you, great
Beethoven, on your knees! Here is the queen of arts, Italy
triumphant!"
The Duchess had spoken while the curtain was being raised. And now the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: young Belvidero, accustomed to treat his father unceremoniously,
had all the faults of a spoiled child. He treated old Bartolommeo
as a wilful courtesan treats an elderly adorer; buying indemnity
for insolence with a smile, selling good-humor, submitting to be
loved.
Don Juan, beholding scene after scene of his younger years, saw
that it would be a difficult task to find his father's indulgence
at fault. Some new-born remorse stirred the depths of his heart;
he felt almost ready to forgive this father now about to die for
having lived so long. He had an accession of filial piety, like a
thief's return in thought to honesty at the prospect of a million
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