| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: with us all through, and none of the longest. Small blame to
us if we give our whole hearts to this glowing bride of ours,
to the appetites, to honour, to the hungry curiosity of the
mind, to the pleasure of the eyes in nature, and the pride of
our own nimble bodies.
We all of us appreciate the sensations; but as for caring
about the Permanence of the Possibility, a man's head is
generally very bald, and his senses very dull, before he comes
to that. Whether we regard life as a lane leading to a dead
wall - a mere bag's end, as the French say - or whether we
think of it as a vestibule or gymnasium, where we wait our
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: answer."
"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are
deeply religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be."
And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political
personages, of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a
new edition of Moliere's Tartufe.
"All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon.
"I want to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and
why you founded this mass."
"Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the
tomb; I may safely tell you about the beginning of my life."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: I will be the first to show you how much faith I have in your
promise. I want you to ride into town, and, going to the
principal merchant there, collect a sum of money from him and
bring it to me.' I said to my mistress: 'Everything you order
shall be done. I will only too gladly obey your slightest wish.'
Then my mistress said: 'Do you understand, Polikey, that your
future lot depends upon the faithful performance of this duty I
impose upon you?' I replied: 'Yes, I understand everything, and
feel that I will suceed in performing acceptably any task which
you may impose upon me. I have been accused of every kind of
evil deed that it is possible to charge a man with, but I have
The Kreutzer Sonata |
