| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: eagerness of my devotion to guess the wishes of your loving soul?
Has not one celestial glance given us assurance of always
understanding each other?
"I have a prayer now to be said to God every night--a prayer full
of you: 'Let my Pauline be happy!' And will you fill all my days
as you now fill my heart?
"Farewell, I can but trust you to God alone!"
III
"Pauline! tell me if I can in any way have displeased you
yesterday? Throw off the pride of heart which inflicts on me the
secret tortures that can be caused by one we love. Scold me if you
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: therefore to the body, the first point to examine, we maintain, will
be the feet. Just as a house would be of little use, however beautiful
its upper stories, if the underlying foundations were not what they
ought to be, so there is little use to be extracted from a horse, and
in particular a war-horse,[4] if unsound in his feet, however
excellent his other points; since he could not turn a single one of
them to good account.[5]
[4] Or, "and that a charger, we will suppose." For the simile see
"Mem." III. i. 7.
[5] Cf. Hor. "Sat." I. ii. 86:
regibus hic mos est: ubi equos mercantur, opertos
On Horsemanship |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: right time, and make his money jingle if he thinks the servants of the
second-class houses which he wants to enter (always eminently
suspicious) are likely to take him for a thief. Activity is not the
least surprising quality of this human machine. Not the hawk swooping
upon its prey, not the stag doubling before the huntsman and the
hounds, nor the hounds themselves catching scent of the game, can be
compared with him for the rapidity of his dart when he spies a
"commission," for the agility with which he trips up a rival and gets
ahead of him, for the keenness of his scent as he noses a customer and
discovers the sport where he can get off his wares.
How many great qualities must such a man possess! You will find in all
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