| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: man can never be really unhappy with a well-bred wife; she will never
make him ridiculous; such a woman is certain to be useful to him.
Natalie will receive in her own house admirably."
So thinking, he taxed his memory as to the most distinguished women of
the faubourg Saint-Germain, in order to convince himself that Natalie
could, if not eclipse them, at any rate stand among them on a footing
of perfect equality. All comparisons were to her advantage, for they
rested on his own imagination, which followed his desires. Paris would
have shown him daily other natures, young girls of other styles of
beauty and charm, and the multiplicity of impressions would have
balanced his mind; whereas in Bordeaux Natalie had no rivals, she was
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: to forget my vow, to forget the voices which invoked me from the
grave. This was Margaret Liebenheim. Ah! how terrific appeared my
duty of bloody retribution, after her angel's face and angel's
voice had calmed me. With respect to her grandfather, strange it
is to mention, that never did my innocent wife appear so lovely as
precisely in the relation of granddaughter. So beautiful was her
goodness to the old man, and so divine was the childlike innocence
on her part, contrasted with the guilty recollections associated
with him--for he was among the guiltiest toward my mother--still I
delayed HIS punishment to the last; and, for his child's sake, I
would have pardoned him--nay, I had resolved to do so, when a
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: my supplication. I poured out my complaint before Him; I showed
before Him my trouble." In the mass a Christian shall keep in
mind the short-comings or excesses he feels, and pour out all
these freely before God with weeping and groaning, as woefully
as he can, as to his faithful Father, who is ready to help him.
And if you do not know or recognise your need, or have no
trouble, then you shall know that you are in the worst possible
plight. For this is the greatest trouble, that you find yourself
so hardened, hard-hearted and insensible that no trouble moves
you.
There is no better mirror in which to see your need than simply
|
