| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: carpet which covered the paved staircase. I like to leave mud on a
rich man's carpet; it is not petty spite; I like to make them feel a
touch of the claws of Necessity. In the Rue Montmartre I thrust open
the old gateway of a poor-looking house, and looked into a dark
courtyard where the sunlight never shines. The porter's lodge was
grimy, the window looked like the sleeve of some shabby wadded gown--
greasy, dirty, and full of holes.
" ' "Mlle. Fanny Malvaut?"
" ' "She has gone out; but if you have come about a bill, the money is
waiting for you."
" ' "I will look in again," said I.
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: twenty-five hundred years before the Christian era.
Our red Indians have left many records, in the form of
pictures, upon our crags and boulders. It has taken our most
gifted and painstaking students two centuries to get at the
meanings hidden in these pictures; yet there are still two little
lines of hieroglyphics among the figures grouped upon the Dighton
Rocks which they have not succeeds in interpreting to their
satisfaction. These: [Figure 3]
The suggested solutions are practically innumerable; they
would fill a book.
Thus we have infinite trouble in solving man-made mysteries;
What is Man? |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: [2] Or, "it is a maxim held of all men."
Isch. It seems, then, you and I and all mankind hold one opinion on
these matters?
Soc. Why, yes; where God himself is teacher, such accord is apt to
follow; for instance, all men are agreed, it is better to wear thick
clothes[3] in winter, if so be they can. We light fires by general
consent, provided we have logs to burn.
[3] Or, "a thick cloak." See Rich, s.v. Pallium (= {imation}).
Yet as regards this very period of seed-time (he made answer),
Socrates, we find at once the widest difference of opinion upon one
point; as to which is better, the early, or the later,[4] or the
|
