| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: not life. By life, I mean that joyous health which makes each hour
a pleasure.
But to return to your letter, which will always be precious to me.
Yes, jesting apart, it contains that which I desired, an
expression of prosaic sentiments which are as necessary to family
life as air to the lungs; and without which no happiness is
possible. To act as an honest man, to think as a poet, to love as
women love, that is what I longed for in my friend, and it is now
no longer a chimera.
Adieu, my friend. I am poor at this moment. That is one of the
reasons why I cling to my concealment, my mask, my impregnable
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: on. 'Swear to me before God that there is no one in there; I will
believe you--I will never open that door.'
"Madame de Merret took up the crucifix and said, 'I swear it.'
" 'Louder,' said her husband; 'and repeat: "I swear before God that
there is nobody in that closet." ' She repeated the words without
flinching.
" 'That will do,' said Monsieur de Merret coldly. After a moment's
silence: 'You have there a fine piece of work which I never saw
before,' said he, examining the crucifix of ebony and silver, very
artistically wrought.
" 'I found it at Duvivier's; last year when that troop of Spanish
La Grande Breteche |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: Can, like the Stars, foretel the Weather;
And what is Parchment else but Leather?
Which an Astrologer might use,
Either for Almanacks or Shoes.
Thus Partridge, by his Wit and Parts,
At once did practise both these Arts;
And as the boading Owl (or rather
The Bat, because her Wings are Leather)
Steals from her private Cell by Night,
And flies about the Candle-Light;
So learned Partridge could as well
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