| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: excitement of the moment you promised me a quarter of all
you should make. 'WE ARE BOTH RICH MEN!' I remember those
very words of yours. They have never been out of my mind.
We discussed the things that we would each do, when we came
into this wealth. It was taken for granted in all our
talk that your making money meant also my making money.
That was the complete understanding--here in London,
and while you were at my house. You know it as well as I do.
And I refuse to suppose that you seriously intend to sit
there and pretend that you meant to give me nothing
but an armful of waste paper. It would be too monstrous!"
The Market-Place |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: the good for the sake of the indifferent?
POLUS: Clearly, the indifferent for the sake of the good.
SOCRATES: When we walk we walk for the sake of the good, and under the
idea that it is better to walk, and when we stand we stand equally for the
sake of the good?
POLUS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And when we kill a man we kill him or exile him or despoil him
of his goods, because, as we think, it will conduce to our good?
POLUS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: Men who do any of these things do them for the sake of the good?
POLUS: Yes.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: making it himself. (You see, dear dreamer, that I have studied the
code in its bearings on conjugal relations.) And when at last that day
comes, you will understand that we are answerable only to God and to
ourselves for the means we employ to keep happiness alight in the
heart of our homes. Far better is the calculation which succeeds in
this than the reckless passion which introduces trouble, heart-
burnings, and dissension.
I have reflected painfully on the duties of a wife and mother of a
family. Yes, sweet one, it is only by a sublime hypocrisy that we can
attain the noblest ideal of a perfect woman. You tax me with
insincerity because I dole out to Louis, from day to day, the measure
|
