| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: "And that they call progress!" exclaimed Mademoiselle des Touches. "I
should like to know where the progress lies?"
"Why, in this," said Madame de Nucingen. "Formerly a woman might have
the voice of a fish-seller, the walk of a grenadier, the face of an
impudent courtesan, her hair too high on her forehead, a large foot, a
thick hand--she was a great lady in spite of it all; but in these
days, even if she were a Montmorency--if a Montmorency would ever be
such a creature--she would not be a lady."
"But what do you mean by a 'perfect lady'?" asked Count Adam Laginski.
"She is a modern product, a deplorable triumph of the elective system
as applied to the fair sex," said the Minister. "Every revolution has
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: not rush blindfold to the christening. In these days there
shall be written a 'Godfather's Assistant,' in shape of a
dictionary of names, with their concomitant virtues and
vices; and this book shall be scattered broadcast through the
land, and shall be on the table of every one eligible for
godfathership, until such a thing as a vicious or untoward
appellation shall have ceased from off the face of the earth.
CRITICISMS
CHAPTER I - LORD LYTTON'S 'FABLES IN SONG'
IT seems as if Lord Lytton, in this new book of his, had
found the form most natural to his talent. In some ways,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: learn that you are now quite well; do not run too many risks or make
your happiness depend too much upon dangers, or the hunting of them.
Sometimes the very thinking of you, and what you may be about,
wearies me with fears, and then the cogitations pause and change,
but without giving me rest. I know that much of this depends upon
my own worn-out nature, and I do not know why I write it, save that
when I write to you I cannot help thinking it, and the thoughts
stand in the way of other matter.
* * * * * * *
'See what a strange desultory epistle I am writing to you, and yet I
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