| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: the Lord, and of speaking the pure language of love and faith.
Hugo has written Marion Delorme, Musset has written Bernerette,
Alexandre Dumas has written Fernande, the thinkers and poets of
all time have brought to the courtesan the offering of their
pity, and at times a great man has rehabilitated them with his
love and even with his name. If I insist on this point, it is
because many among those who have begun to read me will be ready
to throw down a book in which they will fear to find an apology
for vice and prostitution; and the author's age will do
something, no doubt, to increase this fear. Let me undeceive
those who think thus, and let them go on reading, if nothing but
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: my inner being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an
unregenerated man. I have often felt that the INSPIRED Swedenborg must
have misunderstood the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions
which, according to his disciples, I ought to have believed with
veneration. I have failed to imagine the spiral writing of the Angels
or their golden belts, on which the gold is of great or lesser
thickness. If, for example, this statement, 'Some angels are
solitary,' affected me powerfully for a time, I was, on reflection,
unable to reconcile this solitude with their marriages. I have not
understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to wear blue satin
garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why those gigantic
Seraphita |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: satisfaction. Moreover, you might in the course of the trial, if you had
liked, have fixed the penalty at banishment; the state which refuses to let
you go now would have let you go then. But you pretended that you
preferred death to exile (compare Apol.), and that you were not unwilling
to die. And now you have forgotten these fine sentiments, and pay no
respect to us the laws, of whom you are the destroyer; and are doing what
only a miserable slave would do, running away and turning your back upon
the compacts and agreements which you made as a citizen. And first of all
answer this very question: Are we right in saying that you agreed to be
governed according to us in deed, and not in word only? Is that true or
not?' How shall we answer, Crito? Must we not assent?
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