| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: "Ah! You look very strong," the husband said and he did not talk
any more of the time when he used to beat the English. The girl
was looking at them askance now, and the young fellow with the
yellow hair, as he had swallowed some wine the wrong way, and was
coughing violently, bespattered Madame Dufour's sherry-colored
silk dress. Madame got angry, and sent for some water to wash the
spots.
Meanwhile it had grown unbearably hot, the sparkling river looked
like a blaze of fire and the fumes of the wine were getting into
their heads. Monsieur Dufour, who had a violent hiccough, had
unbuttoned his waistcoat and the top of his trousers, while his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: secrecy to make them three times renewed, cravats costing ten francs,
and lasting three months, four waistcoats at twenty-five francs, and
trousers fitting close to the boots. How could he do otherwise, since
we see women in Paris bestowing their special attention on simpletons
who visit them, and cut out the most remarkable men by means of these
frivolous advantages, which a man can buy for fifteen louis, and get
his hair curled and a fine linen shirt into the bargain?
If this unhappy youth should seem to you to have become a /lion/ on
very cheap terms, you must know that Amedee de Soulas had been three
times to Switzerland, by coach and in short stages, twice to Paris,
and once from Paris to England. He passed as a well-informed traveler,
Albert Savarus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: on one another. We begin to feel that the ancients had the same thoughts
as ourselves, the same difficulties which characterize all periods of
transition, almost the same opposition between science and religion.
Although we cannot maintain that ancient and modern philosophy are one and
continuous (as has been affirmed with more truth respecting ancient and
modern history), for they are separated by an interval of a thousand years,
yet they seem to recur in a sort of cycle, and we are surprised to find
that the new is ever old, and that the teaching of the past has still a
meaning for us.
III. In the preface to the first edition I expressed a strong opinion at
variance with Mr. Grote's, that the so-called Epistles of Plato were
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