| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: To themselves yet either-neither,
Simple were so well compounded.
That it cried how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.
THRENOS.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: motionless, fastened to the granite like the lichen that grew upon it;
weeping seldom, lost in one sole thought, immense, infinite as the
ocean, and, like that ocean, taking a thousand forms,--terrible,
tempestuous, tender, calm. It was more than sorrow; it was a new
existence, an irrevocable destiny, dooming this innocent creature to
smile no more. There are pangs which, like a drop of blood cast into
flowing water, stain the whole current instantly. The stream, renewed
from its source, restores the purity of its surface; but with Etienne
the source itself was polluted, and each new current brought its own
gall.
Bertrand, in his old age, had retained the superintendence of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: wound, and finally succeeded in drawing out the iron head, as if he
were handling a thing and not a man. Though he saved the prince by
this heroic treatment, he could not prevent the horrible scar which
gave the great soldier his nickname,--Le Balafre, the Scarred. This
name descended to the son, and for a similar reason.
Absolutely masters of Francois II., whom his wife ruled through their
mutual and excessive passion, these two great Lorrain princes, the
duke and the cardinal, were masters of France, and had no other enemy
at court than Catherine de' Medici. No great statesmen ever played a
closer or more watchful game.
The mutual position of the ambitious widow of Henri II. and the
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