| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: urge on us their ceremonies, as if they could justify us without
faith. Such were the Jews of old, who would not understand, that
they might act well. These men we must resist, do just the
contrary to what they do, and be bold to give them offence, lest
by this impious notion of theirs they should deceive many along
with themselves. Before the eyes of these men it is expedient to
eat flesh, to break fasts, and to do in behalf of the liberty of
faith things which they hold to be the greatest sins. We must say
of them, "Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind"
(Matt. xv. 14). In this way Paul also would not have Titus
circumcised, though these men urged it; and Christ defended the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: heart. It seems to me that his intellectual life was divided into
three marked phases.
Under the impulsion, from his earliest years, of a precocious
activity, due, no doubt, to some malady--or to some special perfection
--of organism, his powers were concentrated on the functions of the
inner senses and a superabundant flow of nerve- fluid. As a man of
ideas, he craved to satisfy the thirst of his brain, to assimilate
every idea. Hence his reading; and from his reading, the reflections
that gave him the power of reducing things to their simplest
expression, and of absorbing them to study them in their essence.
Thus, the advantages of this splendid stage, acquired by other men
Louis Lambert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: But why amplify arguments? Her own warm heart would
tell her, on the instant, how he had been sacrificed
for her sake, and would bring her, eager and devoted,
to his succor.
That was all right, then. Slowly, from this point,
suggestions expanded themselves. The future could be,
if he willed it, one long serene triumph of love,
and lofty intellectual companionship, and existence
softened and enriched at every point by all that wealth
could command, and the most exquisite tastes suggest.
Should he will it! Ah! the question answered itself.
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
