| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: that all her thoughts and her time were given to them. A wonderful
instinct, neither selfishness nor reason, perhaps the first innocent
beginnings of sentiment teaches children to know whether or not they
are the first and sole thought, to find out those who love to think of
them and for them. If you really love children, the dear little ones,
with open hearts and unerring sense of justice, are marvelously ready
to respond to love. Their love knows passion and jealousy and the most
gracious delicacy of feeling; they find the tenderest words of
expression; they trust you--put an entire belief in you. Perhaps there
are no undutiful children without undutiful mothers, for a child's
affection is always in proportion to the affection that it receives--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: should chill her.
The cool waves' gentle plashing against the boat, and the sweet chime
of the lily-bells, lulled little Eva to sleep, and when she woke
it was in Fairy-Land. A faint, rosy light, as of the setting sun,
shone on the white pillars of the Queen's palace as they passed in,
and the sleeping flowers leaned gracefully on their stems, dreaming
beneath their soft green curtains. All was cool and still, and the
Elves glided silently about, lest they should break their slumbers.
They led Eva to a bed of pure white leaves, above which drooped
the fragrant petals of a crimson rose.
"You can look at the bright colors till the light fades, and then
Flower Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: compelled to adopt the yoke of Alessandro; but he had previously gone
to Rome and seen Pope Clement VII., whose affairs were now so
prosperous that his disposition toward Strozzi was much changed. In
the hour of triumph the Medici were so much in need of a man like
Filippo--were it only to smooth the return of Alessandro--that Clement
urged him to take a seat at the Council of the bastard who was about
to oppress the city; and Strozzi consented to accept the diploma of a
senator.
But, for the last two years and more, he had seen, like Seneca and
Burrhus, the beginnings of tyranny in his Nero. He felt himself, at
the moment of which we write, an object of so much distrust on the
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