| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: hitherto taken care of me; perhaps he liked me because I was
beautiful; possibly I reminded him of his youth. He was one of those
great lords of the old regime, who took pride in showing how they
could get their crimes forgiven by committing them with grace. I will
say no more, he was my father. But let me explain to you how my life
in Paris injured my soul. The society of the Duc de Verneuil, to which
he introduced me, was bitten by that scoffing philosophy about which
all France was then enthusiastic because it was wittily professed. The
brilliant conversations which charmed my ear were marked by subtlety
of perception and by witty contempt for all that was true and
spiritual. Men laughed at sentiments, and pictured them all the better
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: worrying. But after a few days I saw that no one was going to
suspect me, and after that I got to feeling glad I did it. And I
feel glad yet, Mary--glad through and through."
"So do I, now, for it would have been a dreadful way to treat him.
Yes, I'm glad; for really you did owe him that, you know. But,
Edward, suppose it should come out yet, some day!"
"It won't."
"Why?"
"Because everybody thinks it was Goodson."
"Of course they would!"
"Certainly. And of course HE didn't care. They persuaded poor old
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: then not love them; and when they love, they do not wish to feel
fear for the child's health and life. That is why they do not
wish to nurse them. 'If I nurse it,' they say, 'I shall become
too fond of it.' One would think that they preferred
india-rubber children, which could neither be sick nor die, and
could always be repaired. What an entanglement in the brains of
these poor women! Why such abominations to avoid pregnancy, and
to avoid the love of the little ones?
"Love, the most joyous condition of the soul, is represented as a
danger. And why? Because, when a man does not live as a man, he
is worse than a beast. A woman cannot look upon a child
The Kreutzer Sonata |
