| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: throw impediments in the way of what the wisest wish, VIZ., two
elected chambers and a president."
LETTER: To W.D.B.
LONDON, May 5, 1848
My dear W.: . . . Last evening, Thursday, we went to see Jenny
Lind, on her first appearance this year. She was received with
enthusiasm, and the Queen still more so. It was the first time the
Queen had been at the opera since the birth of her child, and since
the republican spirit was abroad, and loyalty burst out in full
force. Now loyalty is very novel, and pleasant to witness, to us
who have never known it.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: so happened that at the mention of that 'nice old man,' an ominous
tinkling sounded in his ears. One evening, therefore, Maxime seated
himself among the book-shelves in the dimly lighted back room,
reconnoitred the seven or eight customers through the chink between
the green curtains, and took the little coach-builder's measure. He
gauged the man's infatuation, and was very well satisfied to find that
the varnished doors of a tolerably sumptuous future were ready to turn
at a word from Antonia so soon as his own fancy had passed off.
" 'And that other one yonder?' asked he, pointing out the stout fine-
looking elderly man with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. 'Who is
he?'
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: has the absolute power to bind and loose souls. There are many
wicked popes plunged in hell, but all their lawful acts on earth
are accepted and confirmed by God, and all priests who are not
heretics administer true sacraments, no matter how depraved they
may be. Correctness of belief was thus the sole essential; virtue
was a wholly subordinate consideration. How completely under such
a system religion and morals came to be dissociated is seen in
the remarks of Pius II, that the Franciscans were excellent
theologians, but cared nothing about virtue.
This, in fact, was the direct result of the system of persecution
embodied in the Inquisition. Heretics who were admitted to be
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