| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: look after the girl?--who, to tell you the truth, seems to me rather
questionable; there are plenty of better men in Alencon than that
cynic du Bousquier. A girl must be depraved, indeed, to go after him."
"Cynic! Your son teaches you to talk Latin, my dear, which is wholly
incomprehensible. Certainly I don't wish to excuse Monsieur du
Bousquier; but pray explain to me why a woman is depraved because she
prefers one man to another."
"My dear cousin, suppose you married my son Athanase; nothing could be
more natural. He is young and handsome, full of promise, and he will
be the glory of Alencon; and yet everybody will exclaim against you:
evil tongues will say all sorts of things; jealous women will accuse
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Not because the disciples were Pharisees, or circumcised, or particularly
attentive to the Law. Jesus said: "The Father loveth you, because ye have
loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. It pleased you to know
that the Father sent me into the world. And because you believed it the
Father loves you." On another occasion Jesus called His disciples evil and
commanded them to ask for forgiveness.
A Christian is beloved of God and a sinner. How can these two contradictions
be harmonized: I am a sinner and deserve God's wrath and punishment, and yet
the Father loves me? Christ alone can harmonize these contradictions. He is
the Mediator.
Do you now see how faith justifies without works? Sin lingers in us, and God
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Poems of William Blake by William Blake: The Cloud reclind upon his airy throne and answerd thus.
Then if thou art the food of worms, O virgin of the skies,
How great thy use, how great thy blessing, every thing that lives.
Lives not alone nor or itself: fear not and I will call,
The weak worm from its lowly bed, and thou shalt hear its voice.
Come forth worm and the silent valley, to thy pensive queen.
The helpless worm arose and sat upon the Lillys leaf,
And the bright Cloud saild on, to find his partner in the vale.
III.
Then Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed.
Art thou a Worm? image of weakness. art thou but a Worm?
Poems of William Blake |
