| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: The history of the crimes committed by crowds illustrates what
precedes.
The murder of M. de Launay, the governor of the Bastille, may be
cited as a typical example. After the taking of the fortress the
governor, surrounded by a very excited crowd, was dealt blows
from every direction. It was proposed to hang him, to cut off
his head, to tie him to a horse's tail. While struggling, he
accidently kicked one of those present. Some one proposed, and
his suggestion was at once received with acclamation by the
crowd, that the individual who had been kicked should cut the
governor's throat.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: way, and is but making it still. He may yet be caught and crushed
between two cars full of intrigues on the highroad to power. He has no
house; he has not the favor of the palace like Metternich; nor, like
Villele, the protection of a compact majority.
"I do not believe that the present state of things will last ten
years longer. Hence, supposing I should have such poor good luck,
I am already too late to avoid being swept away by the commotion
I foresee. I should need to be established in a superior
position."
"What commotion?" asked Juste.
"AUGUST, 1830," said Marcas in solemn tones, holding out his hand
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: they felt. The old priest was the least overcome, probably because he
ran the greatest danger. If a brave man is weighed down by great
calamities or the yoke of persecution, he begins, as it were, by
making the sacrifice of himself; and thereafter every day of his life
becomes one more victory snatched from fate. But from the way in which
the women looked at him it was easy to see that their intense anxiety
was on his account.
"Why should our faith in God fail us, my sisters?" he said, in low but
fervent tones. "We sang His praises through the shrieks of murderers
and their victims at the Carmelites. If it was His will that I should
come alive out of that butchery, it was, no doubt, because I was
|
