| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: length of indignities to his dead body; but they who write
history afterwards, and were noway wronged by him in his
lifetime, and have received assistance from his writings, in
honor should not with opprobrious and scurrilous language
upbraid him for those misfortunes, which may well enough befall
even the best of men. On the other side, Ephorus is as much out
of the way in his encomiums. For, however ingenious he is in
supplying unjust acts and wicked conduct with fair and worthy
motives, and in selecting decorous and honorable terms, yet when
he does his best, he does not himself stand clear of the charge
of being the greatest lover of tyrants, and the fondest admirer
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: for you had an affection for my Albert, I must at last confess that I
committed crimes to become his wife, and he must be my husband.--Here;
read this."
She held out to him a number of the /Gazette/ which she had in her
apron pocket, pointing out the following paragraph under the date of
Florence, May 25th:--
"The wedding of Monsieur le Duc de Rhetore, eldest son of the Duc
de Chaulieu, the former Ambassador, to Madame la Duchesse
d'Argaiolo, /nee/ Princess Soderini, was solemnized with great
splendor. Numerous entertainments given in honor of the marriage
are making Florence gay. The Duchess' fortune is one of the finest
Albert Savarus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: as it is instructive.
A Government bloodthirsty enough to guillotine old men of eighty
years, young girls, and little children: which covered France
with ruins, and yet succeeded in repulsing Europe in arms; an
archduchess of Austria, Queen of France, dying on the
scaffold, and a few years later another archduchess, her
relative, replacing her on the same throne and marrying a sub-
lieutenant, turned Emperor--here are tragedies unique in human
history. The psychologists, above all, will derive lessons from
a history hitherto so little studied by them. No doubt they will
finally discover that psychology can make no progress until it
|
