| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: that it is something dishonoring for both you and me if M. de Rubempre
defends her. Go at once to Stanislas and ask him to give you
satisfaction for his insulting language; and mind, you must not accept
any explanation short of a full and public retraction in the presence
of witnesses of credit. In this way you will win back the respect of
all right-minded people; you will behave like a man of spirit and a
gentleman, and you will have a right to my esteem. I shall send Gentil
on horseback to the Escarbas; my father must be your second; old as he
is, I know that he is the man to trample this puppet under foot that
has smirched the reputation of a Negrepelisse. You have the choice of
weapons, choose pistols; you are an admirable shot."
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent, for Him hath God
the Father sealed" (John vi. 27, 29).
Hence a right faith in Christ is an incomparable treasure,
carrying with it universal salvation and preserving from all
evil, as it is said, "He that believeth and is baptised shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16).
Isaiah, looking to this treasure, predicted, "The consumption
decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of
hosts shall make a consumption, even determined (verbum
abbreviatum et consummans), in the midst of the land" (Isa. x.
22, 23). As if he said, "Faith, which is the brief and complete
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: shreads in a minute--don't you know that?"
"Yes, I does."
"Then you don't believe I'm idiot enough to go to him, do you?"
"I don't b'lieve nothin' 'bout it--I KNOWS you's a-goin'.
I knows it 'ca'se you knows dat if you don't raise dat money I'll
go to him myself, en den he'll sell YOU down de river, en you kin
see how you like it!"
Tom rose, trembling and excited, and there was an evil light in his eye.
He strode to the door and said he must get out of
this suffocating place for a moment and clear his brain in the
fresh air so that he could determine what to do.
|
