| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: on the threshold to have a look at the passing sledge. In the
middle of the village girls could be heard singing.
Here in the village there seemed to be less wind and snow, and
the frost was less keen.
'Why, this is Grishkino,' said Vasili Andreevich.
'So it is,' responded Nikita.
It really was Grishkino, which meant that they had gone too far
to the left and had travelled some six miles, not quite in the
direction they aimed at, but towards their destination for all
that.
From Grishkino to Goryachkin was about another four miles.
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: Crowds are to some extent in the position of the sleeper whose
reason, suspended for the time being, allows the arousing in his
mind of images of extreme intensity which would quickly be
dissipated could they be submitted to the action of reflection.
Crowds, being incapable both of reflection and of reasoning, are
devoid of the notion of improbability; and it is to be noted that
in a general way it is the most improbable things that are the
most striking.
This is why it happens that it is always the marvellous and
legendary side of events that more specially strike crowds. When
a civilisation is analysed it is seen that, in reality, it is the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: despoiled boards, and its descendant, the angry girl with her
hand on an open box-lid, made a sort of couple in the loneliness:
she on the wall sweet and serene, she by the box sweet and
stormy. The picture was her final treasure waiting to be packed
for the journey. In whatever room she had called her own since
childhood, there it had also lived and looked at her, not quite
familiar, not quite smiling, but in its prim colonial hues
delicate as some pressed flower. Its pale oval, of color blue and
rose and flaxen, in a battered, pretty gold frame, unconquerably
pervaded any surroundings with a something like last year's
lavender. Till yesterday a Crow Indian war-bonnet had hung next
The Virginian |
