| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: consideration shown to me by the Duc de Lenoncourt set the tone of
that which I met with in society. To have it said, "The king takes an
interest in the young man; that young man has a future, the king likes
him," would have served me in place of talents; and it now gave to the
kindly welcome accorded to youth a certain respect that is only given
to power. In the salon of the Duchesse de Lenoncourt and also at the
house of my sister who had just married the Marquis de Listomere, son
of the old lady in the Ile St. Louis, I gradually came to know the
influential personages of the Faubourg St. Germain.
Henriette herself put me at the heart of the circle then called "le
Petit Chateau" by the help of her great-aunt, the Princesse de
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: the gods whose name is legion. Let us therefore see which of
these hold the truth, and which error.
"The Chaldeans, which knew not God, went astray after the
elements and began to worship the creature rather than their
Creator, and they made figures of these creatures and called them
likenesses of heaven, and earth and sea, of sun and moon, and of
the other elements or luminaries. And they enclose them in
temples, and worship them under the title of gods, and guard them
in safety lest they be stolen by robbers. They have not
understood how that which guardeth is ever greater than that
which is guarded, and that the maker is greater than the thing
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: of flame. She passed through the multitude, and touched them, and
each man that she touched died. The grass withered beneath her
feet as she walked.
And Avarice shuddered, and put ashes on her head. 'Thou art
cruel,' she cried; 'thou art cruel. There is famine in the walled
cities of India, and the cisterns of Samarcand have run dry. There
is famine in the walled cities of Egypt, and the locusts have come
up from the desert. The Nile has not overflowed its banks, and the
priests have cursed Isis and Osiris. Get thee gone to those who
need thee, and leave me my servants.'
'Nay,' answered Death, 'but till thou hast given me a grain of corn
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