| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: from the age of fourteen, by one of those startling freaks in which
nature sometimes indulges, and which proved how anomalous was his
temperament, he would utter quite simply ideas of which the depth was
not revealed to me till a long time after.
"Often," he has said to me when speaking of his studies, "often
have I made the most delightful voyage, floating on a word down
the abyss of the past, like an insect embarked on a blade of
grass tossing on the ripples of a stream. Starting from Greece, I
would get to Rome, and traverse the whole extent of modern ages.
What a fine book might be written of the life and adventures of a
word! It has, of course, received various stamps from the
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: "Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried; the
Lord do so to me and more also, if ought but death part me and
thee.' "
Their eyes met. There was a long pause. Suddenly the sharp,
sweet notes of the church bell brought John Douglas to his feet
with a start of surprise.
"Have you got to go?" Polly asked regretfully.
"Yes, I must; but I'll read the rest from the church. Open the
window, Mandy!" And he passed out of the door and quickly down
the stairs.
Chapter VI
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: nephew's ruin. Monsieur Octave de Camps, he said, having wasted his
means on a certain Madame Firmiani, was now reduced to teaching
mathematics for a living, while awaiting his uncle's death, not daring
to let him know of his dissipations. This distant cousin, a sort of
Charles Moor, was not ashamed to give this fatal news to the old
gentleman as he sat by his fire, digesting a profuse provincial
dinner.
[*] The "Bande Noire" was a mysterious association of speculators,
whose object was to buy in landed estates, cut them up, and sell
them off in small parcels to the peasantry, or others.
But heirs cannot always rid themselves of uncles as easily as they
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