| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: remorse. The petty aggressiveness which lies at the root of the
monastic temper was the foundation of Madame de Granville's; she was
now five-and-thirty, and looked forty. When the count was compelled by
decency to speak to his wife or to dine at home, she was only too well
pleased to inflict her company upon him, with her acid-sweet remarks
and the intolerable dulness of her narrow-minded circle, and she tried
to put him in the wrong before the servants and her charitable
friends.
When, at this time, the post of President in a provincial court was
offered to the Comte de Granville, who was in high favor, he begged to
be allowed to remain in Paris. This refusal, of which the Keeper of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: conception of the one determines that of the other. The Greeks and the
moderns seem to be nearly at the opposite poles in their manner of
regarding them. And both are surprised when they make the discovery, as
Plato has done in the Sophist, how large an element negation forms in the
framework of their thoughts.
2, 3. The finite element which mingles with and regulates the infinite is
best expressed to us by the word 'law.' It is that which measures all
things and assigns to them their limit; which preserves them in their
natural state, and brings them within the sphere of human cognition. This
is described by the terms harmony, health, order, perfection, and the like.
All things, in as far as they are good, even pleasures, which are for the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: is to be the end of this?"
"Unless we hear from O'Neil, father, I am afraid it cannot be
prevented. De Courcy has been changing for a year past; I am only
surprised that you did not sooner notice it. What I said in jest
has become serious truth; he has already half forgotten. We might
have expected, in the beginning, that one of two things would
happen: either he would become a plodding Quaker farmer or take to
his present courses. Which would be worse, when this life is
over,--if that time ever comes?"
Sylvia sighed, and there was a weariness in her voice which did not
escape her father's ear. He walked up and down the room with a
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