| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: that of the ivy that clung to these chill walls, to that of the
peasants born to labor, who are born, toil, and die unknown to the
world they have helped to feed. A house-owner, after studying the
house with the eye of a valuer, would have said, "What will become of
those two women if embroidery should go out of fashion?" Among the men
who, having some appointment at the Hotel de Ville or the Palais de
Justice, were obliged to go through this street at fixed hours, either
on their way to business or on their return home, there may have been
some charitable soul. Some widower or Adonis of forty, brought so
often into the secrets of these sad lives, may perhaps have reckoned
on the poverty of this mother and daughter, and have hoped to become
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: opinion. That roguery and lying are objectionable, and are
instantly to be flogged out of the way whenever discovered;--that
covetousness and love of quarrelling are dangerous dispositions even
in children, and deadly dispositions in men and nations;--that, in
the end, the God of heaven and earth loves active, modest, and kind
people, and hates idle, proud, greedy, and cruel ones;--on these
general facts you are bound to have but one, and that a very strong,
opinion. For the rest, respecting religions, governments, sciences,
arts, you will find that, on the whole, you can know NOTHING,--judge
nothing; that the best you can do, even though you may be a well-
educated person, is to be silent, and strive to be wiser every day,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: out of the hold with ropes. "Heave a-hoy!" they shouted as each
chest came up. "I am going to Egypt"! cried the Swallow, but
nobody minded, and when the moon rose he flew back to the Happy
Prince.
"I am come to bid you good-bye," he cried.
"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not
stay with me one night longer?"
"It is winter," answered the Swallow, "and the chill snow will soon
be here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-trees, and the
crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them. My
companions are building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the
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