| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: "Republican! no, I am that no longer. I could not now respect you if
you submitted to the First Consul," she replied. "But neither do I
like to see you at the head of men who are pillaging a corner of
France, instead of making war against the whole Republic. For whom are
you fighting? What do you expect of a king restored to his throne by
your efforts? A woman did that great thing once, and the liberated
king allowed her to be burned. Such men are the anointed of the Lord,
and there is danger in meddling with sacred things. Let God take care
of his own, and place, displace, and replace them on their purple
seats. But if you have counted the cost, and seen the poor return that
will come to you, you are tenfold greater in my eyes than I thought
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,
and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land
and property in Scillus, where he lived for many
years before having to move once more, to settle
in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.
Revenues describes Xenophon's ideas to solve the
problem of poverty in Athens, and thus remove an
excuse to mistreat the Athenian allies.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: Europe are punishable in Asia, and a vice in Paris becomes a necessity
when you have passed the Azores. There are no such things as hard-and-
fast rules; there are only conventions adapted to the climate. Fling a
man headlong into one social melting pot after another, and
convictions and forms and moral systems become so many meaningless
words to him. The one thing that always remains, the one sure instinct
that nature has implanted in us, is the instinct of self-interest. If
you had lived as long as I have, you would know that there is but one
concrete reality invariable enough to be worth caring about, and that
is--GOLD. Gold represents every form of human power. I have traveled.
I found out that there were either hills or plains everywhere: the
Gobseck |
