| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: that no one could avoid waking up at the remonstrating racket.
Accordingly, in a few moments, he heard, not without some pleasure in
his wrath, the wooden shoes of the servant-woman clacking along the
paved path which led to the outer door. But even then the discomforts
of the gouty old gentleman were not so quickly over as he hoped.
Instead of pulling the string, Marianne was obliged to turn the lock
of the door with its heavy key, and pull back all the bolts.
"Why did you let me ring three times in such weather?" said the vicar.
"But, monsieur, don't you see the door was locked? We have all been in
bed ever so long; it struck a quarter to eleven some time ago.
Mademoiselle must have thought you were in."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: wrests a victory, whereby he may add to his reputation for success,
but not for strategy. Rather was his example that of one who in each
emergency will take the lead; at a crisis where toil is needful, by
endurance; or in the battle-lists of bravery by prowess; or when the
function of the counsellor is uppermost, by the soundness of his
judgment. Of such a man I say, he has obtained by warrant indefeasible
the title peerless.
And if, as a means towards good workmanship, we count among the noble
inventions of mankind the rule and the plummet,[1] no less happily
shall we, who desire to attain a manly excellence, find in the virtue
of Agesilaus a pattern and example. He was God-fearing, he was just in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: remember, after insulting words, there tacitly followed embraces
and declarations. Abomination! Why is it that I did not then
perceive this baseness?
CHAPTER XIII.
"All of us, men and women, are brought up in these aberrations
of feeling that we call love. I from childhood had prepared
myself for this thing, and I loved, and I loved during all my
youth, and I was joyous in loving. It had been put into my head
that it was the noblest and highest occupation in the world. But
when this expected feeling came at last, and I, a man, abandoned
The Kreutzer Sonata |
