| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: needed a special spiritual nourishment. The initiation into a
knowledge of divine things which he gave her was such that Ursula grew
into the pious and mystical young girl whose character rose above all
vicissitudes, and whose heart was enabled to conquer adversity. Then
began a secret struggle between the old man wedded to unbelief and the
young girl full of faith,--long unsuspected by her who incited it,--
the result of which had now stirred the whole town, and was destined
to have great influence on Ursula's future by rousing against her the
antagonism of the doctor's heirs.
During the first six months of the year 1824 Ursula spent all her
mornings at the parsonage. The old doctor guessed the abbe's secret
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: characterize their after life and conduct. Their clothes are cut
on the same pattern, out of cloth as those of their parents and
grandparents. There are no kilts and knee-breeches, pinafores and
short skirts, to make them feel that they are little people.
But they are little people as really and truly as are the
children of other countries. A gentleman in reviewing my
"Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes" speaks of some of the
illustrations which "present the Chinese children playing
their sober little games." Why we should call such a game
as "blind man's buff," "e-ni-me-ni-mi-ni-mo," "this little
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: it in memory, and even noted down, as one of the finest trees in
symmetry and beauty I had ever seen. I have received a document,
signed by two citizens of a neighboring town, certified by the
postmaster and a selectman, and these again corroborated,
reinforced, and sworn to by a member of that extraordinary college-
class to which it is the good fortune of my friend the Professor to
belong, who, though he has FORMERLY been a member of Congress, is,
I believe, fully worthy of confidence. The tree "girts" eighteen
and a half feet, and spreads over a hundred, and is a real beauty.
I hope to meet my friend under its branches yet; if we don't have
"youth at the prow," we will have "pleasure at the 'elm."
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
