| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: spared its venomous bitterness. How rightly you have judged of life!
Farewell.
LV
THE COMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE TO MME. GASTON
July 16th.
My dear Louise,--I send this letter by an express before hastening to
the chalet myself. Take courage. Your last letter seemed to me so
frantic, that I thought myself justified, under the circumstances, in
confiding all to Louis; it was a question of saving you from yourself.
If the means we have employed have been, like yours, repulsive, yet
the result is so satisfactory that I am certain you will approve. I
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: SOCRATES: Come now, suppose that you were to say to me: 'Since you,
Socrates, are able to assign different passages in Homer to their
corresponding arts, I wish that you would tell me what are the passages of
which the excellence ought to be judged by the prophet and prophetic art';
and you will see how readily and truly I shall answer you. For there are
many such passages, particularly in the Odyssee; as, for example, the
passage in which Theoclymenus the prophet of the house of Melampus says to
the suitors:--
'Wretched men! what is happening to you? Your heads and your faces and
your limbs underneath are shrouded in night; and the voice of lamentation
bursts forth, and your cheeks are wet with tears. And the vestibule is
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: lent himself to the harmless deceit. Day after day M. de Nueil went
shooting, and came back at dinner-time with an empty bag. A whole week
went by in this way. Gaston grew bold enough to write a long letter to
the Marquise, and had it conveyed to her. It was returned to him
unopened. The Marquise's servant brought it back about nightfall. The
Count, sitting in the drawing-room listening, while his wife at the
piano mangled a /Caprice/ of Herold's, suddenly sprang up and rushed
out to the Marquise, as if he were flying to an assignation. He dashed
through a well-known gap into the park, and went slowly along the
avenues, stopping now and again for a little to still the loud beating
of his heart. Smothered sounds as he came nearer the chateau told him
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