| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: active; it is embedded in the law and written on the soil; it fills
people's minds. The danger is all the greater because the greater
number of the King's counselors, seeing it destitute of armed forces
and of money, believe it completely vanquished. The King is an able
man, and not easily blinded; but from day to day he is won over by his
brother's partisans, who want to hurry things on. He has not two years
to live, and thinks more of a peaceful deathbed than of anything else.
"Shall I tell you, my child, which is the most destructive of all the
consequences entailed by the Revolution? You would never guess. In
Louis XVI. the Revolution has decapitated every head of a family. The
family has ceased to exist; we have only individuals. In their desire
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: cum se suaque ab iis defendere non possent, legatos ad Caesarem mittunt
rogatum auxilium: ita se omni tempore de populo Romano meritos esse ut
paene in conspectu exercitus nostri agri vastari, liberi [eorum] in
servitutem abduci, oppida expugnari non debuerint. Eodem tempore
Haedui Ambarri, necessarii et consanguinei Haeduorum, Caesarem certiorem
faciunt sese depopulatis agris non facile ab oppidis vim hostium
prohibere. Item Allobroges, qui trans Rhodanum vicos possessionesque
habebant, fuga se ad Caesarem recipiunt et demonstrant sibi praeter agri
solum nihil esse reliqui. Quibus rebus adductus Caesar non expectandum
sibi statuit dum, omnibus, fortunis sociorum consumptis, in Santonos
Helvetii pervenirent.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: "Nay! You shame me, Mademoiselle," replied Sir Andrew;
"though my life is at your service, I have been but a humble tool in
the hands of our great leader, who organised and effected your escape."
He had spoken with so much warmth and vehemence that Suzanne's
eyes fastened upon him in undisguised wonder.
"Your leader, Monsieur?" said the Comtesse, eagerly. "Ah! of
course, you must have a leader. And I did not think of that before!
But tell me where is he? I must go to him at once, and I and my
children must throw ourselves at his feet, and thank him for all that
he has done for us."
"Alas, Madame!" said Lord Antony, "that is impossible."
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
