| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: living. If there was ever an astonished man it was the young professor
when he beheld his uncle. The door was unlocked, his lamp still
burning; he had been sitting up all night.
"You rascal!" said Monsieur de Bourbonne, sitting down in the nearest
chair; "since when is it the fashion to laugh at uncles who have
twenty-six thousand francs a year from solid acres to which we are the
sole heir? Let me tell you that in the olden time we stood in awe of
such uncles as that. Come, speak up, what fault have you to find with
me? Haven't I played my part as uncle properly? Did I ever require you
to respect me? Have I ever refused you money? When did I shut the door
in your face on pretence that you had come to look after my health?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: nothing as the result of sufficient consideration, or as the settled
conviction, or even probable conclusion at which he had arrived.'
The gist of this communication is that gravitating force acts in
lines across space, and that the vibrations of light and radiant
heat consist in the tremors of these lines of force. 'This notion,'
he says, 'as far as it is admitted, will dispense with the ether,
which, in another view is supposed to be the medium in which these
vibrations take place.' And he adds further on, that his view
'endeavours to dismiss the ether but not the vibrations.' The idea
here set forth is the natural supplement of his previous notion,
that it is gravitating force which constitutes matter, each atom
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: small. All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a
previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one
in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does
what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest
things.
3. He who lightly promises is sure to keep but little faith; he who is
continually thinking things easy is sure to find them difficult.
Therefore the sage sees difficulty even in what seems easy, and so
never has any difficulties.
64. 1. That which is at rest is easily kept hold of; before a thing
has given indications of its presence, it is easy to take measures
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