| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: your daughter will be eighteen; she will be your companion, your
spy. To you society will be cruel, and your daughter perhaps more
cruel still. We have seen cases of the harsh social judgment and
ingratitude of daughters; let us take warning by them. Keep in the
depths of your soul, as I shall in mine, the memory of four years
of happiness, and be faithful, if you can, to the memory of your
poor friend. I cannot exact such faithfulness, because, do you
see, dear Annette, I must conform to the exigencies of my new
life; I must take a commonplace view of them and do the best I
can. Therefore I must think of marriage, which becomes one of the
necessities of my future existence; and I will admit to you that I
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: of the working man who descends as a common solder into the battle of
life, than in that of the millionaire who sits apart in an office,
like Von Moltke, and only directs the manoeuvres by telegraph. Give
me to hear about the career of him who is in the thick of business;
to whom one change of market means empty belly, and another a copious
and savoury meal. This is not the philosophical, but the human side
of economics; it interests like a story; and the life all who are
thus situated partakes in a small way the charm of ROBINSON CRUSOE;
for every step is critical and human life is presented to you naked
and verging to its lowest terms.
NEW YORK
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: The Italian seemed happy only when he could come to see Pierre, talk
with him, tell him about his past, his life at home, and his love, and
pour out to him his indignation against the French and especially
against Napoleon.
"If all Russians are in the least like you, it is sacrilege to fight
such a nation," he said to Pierre. "You, who have suffered so from the
French, do not even feel animosity toward them."
Pierre had evoked the passionate affection of the Italian merely
by evoking the best side of his nature and taking a pleasure in so
doing.
During the last days of Pierre's stay in Orel his old Masonic
War and Peace |
