| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: dearest Musgrove most truly and faithfully yours for ever and
ever
Henrietta Halton.
I hope he will like my answer; it is as good a one as I can write
though nothing to his; Indeed I had always heard what a dab he
was at a Love-letter. I saw him you know for the first time at
Lady Scudamores--And when I saw her Ladyship afterwards she asked
me how I liked her Cousin Musgrove?
"Why upon my word said I, I think he is a very handsome young
Man."
"I am glad you think so replied she, for he is distractedly in
Love and Friendship |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: which the Church is so fond - so rightly fond, I dare say - for in
life as in art the mood of rebellion closes up the channels of the
soul, and shuts out the airs of heaven. Yet I must learn these
lessons here, if I am to learn them anywhere, and must be filled
with joy if my feet are on the right road and my face set towards
'the gate which is called beautiful,' though I may fall many times
in the mire and often in the mist go astray.
This New Life, as through my love of Dante I like sometimes to call
it, is of course no new life at all, but simply the continuance, by
means of development, and evolution, of my former life. I remember
when I was at Oxford saying to one of my friends as we were
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: and his habits gave to his intercourse with others the most exquisite
savor of all that is most spiritual, most sincere in the human mind. A
lover of gayety, he was never priest in a salon. Until Doctor
Minoret's arrival, the good man kept his light under a bushel without
regret. Owning a rather fine library and an income of two thousand
francs when he came to Nemours, he now possessed, in 1829, nothing at
all, except his stipend as parish priest, nearly the whole of which he
gave away during the year. The giver of excellent counsel in delicate
matters or in great misfortunes, many persons who never went to church
to obtain consolation went to the parsonage to get advice. One little
anecdote will suffice to complete his portrait. Sometimes the
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