| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: might be entertained by the first occupant of the Tapestried
Chamber, which might tend to revive the evil report which it had
laboured under, and so disappoint my purpose of rendering it a
useful part or the house. I must confess, my dear Browne, that
your arrival yesterday, agreeable to me for a thousand reasons
besides, seemed the most favourable opportunity of removing the
unpleasant rumours which attached to the room, since your courage
was indubitable, and your mind free of any preoccupation on the
subject. I could not, therefore, have chosen a more fitting
subject for my experiment."
"Upon my life," said General Browne, somewhat hastily, "I am
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: pervert, the heretic, that enemy of the Church, the guilty taker of
the Constitutional oath. Du Bousquier, whose secret ambition was to
lay down the law to the town, wished, as a first proof of his power,
to reconcile the minister of Saint-Leonard with the rector of the
parish, and he succeeded. His wife thought he had accomplished a work
of peace where the immovable abbe saw only treachery. The bishop came
to visit du Bousquier, and seemed glad of the cessation of
hostilities. The virtues of the Abbe Francois had conquered prejudice,
except that of the aged Roman Catholic, who exclaimed with Cornelle,
"Alas! what virtues do you make me hate!"
The abbe died when orthodoxy thus expired in the diocese.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: grace and mercy, but as it is written, 1 Cor. 1, 31: He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, namely, that he has a
gracious God. For thus all is well. We say, besides, that if
good works do not follow, faith is false and not true.
XIV. Of Monastic Vows.
As monastic vows directly conflict with the first chief
article, they must be absolutely abolished. For it is of them
that Christ says, Matt. 24, 5. 23 ff.: I am Christ, etc. For
he who makes a vow to live as a monk believes that he will
enter upon a mode of life holier than ordinary Christians
lead, and wishes to earn heaven by his own works not only for
|
