| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth? 416
If springing things be any jot diminish'd,
They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth;
The colt that's back'd and burden'd being young
Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong. 420
'You hurt my hand with wringing Iet us part,
And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat:
Remove your siege from my unyielding heart;
To love's alarms it will not ope the gate: 424
Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flattery;
For where a heart is hard they make no battery.'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: that rock like a galley-slave to his ball; watching through twenty
years for shell-fish to earn a living, and sustained in his patience
by a single sentiment. How many hours wasted on a lonely shore! How
many hopes defeated by a change of weather! He was hanging there to a
granite rock, his arm extended like that of an Indian fakir, while his
father, sitting in their hovel, awaited, in silence and darkness, a
meal of the coarsest bread and shell-fish, if the sea permitted.
"Do you ever drink wine?" I asked.
"Three or four times a year," he replied.
"Well, you shall drink it to-day,--you and your father; and we will
send you some white bread."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: which of the young men among whom he was hesitating I should like for
an associate. Among them was one who had been my school-fellow at
Lepitre's; I did not select him. His Majesty asked why.
"The king," I replied, "chooses men who are equally faithful, but
whose capabilities differ. I choose the one whom I think the most
able, certain that I shall always be able to get on with him."
My judgment coincided with that of the king, who was pleased with the
sacrifice I had made. He said on this occasion, "You are to be the
chief"; and he related these circumstances to my colleague, who
became, in return for the service I had done him, my good friend. The
consideration shown to me by the Duc de Lenoncourt set the tone of
The Lily of the Valley |
