| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: him. The maiden herself puts on his arms (though she casts no
spell or charm), (11) laces on his iron greaves, and makes them
fast with thong of deer-hide. She puts on his hauberk with its
strong meshes, and laces on his ventail. The gleaming helmet she
sets upon his head, and thus arms him well from tip to toe. At
his side she fastens his sword, and then orders his horse to be
brought, which is done. Up he jumped clear of the ground. The
damsel then brings the shield and the strong lance: she hands him
the shield, and he takes it and hangs it about his neck by the
strap. She places the lance in his hand, and when he had grasped
it by the butt-end, he thus addressed the gentle vavasor: "Fair
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: further about keeping up appearances. Far-sighted mothers make much of
him; he is one of the kings of fashion in Paris.
"But a wife changes everything. A wife means a properly furnished
house," continued the lawyer; "she wants the carriage for herself; if
she goes to the play, she wants a box, while the bachelor has only a
stall to pay for; in short, a wife represents the whole of the income
which the bachelor used to spend on himself. Suppose that husband and
wife have thirty thousand francs a year between them--practically, the
sometime bachelor is a poor devil who thinks twice before he drives
out to Chantilly. Bring children on the scene--he is pinched for money
at once.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: a huntsman; I wore a jacket with white and red buttons, striped
trousers, leathern gaiters and shoes. Tramping through underbrush had
so injured my clothes that the count was obliged to lend me linen. On
the present occasion, two years' residence in Paris, constant
intercourse with the king, the habits of a life at ease, my completed
growth, a youthful countenance, which derived a lustre from the
placidity of the soul within magnetically united with the pure soul
that beamed on me from Clochegourde,--all these things combined had
transformed me. I was self-possessed without conceit, inwardly pleased
to find myself, in spite of my years, at the summit of affairs; above
all, I had the consciousness of being secretly the support and comfort
The Lily of the Valley |
