| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: But is it not possible for us to discard most of these older
forms of mortification, and yet find saner channels for the
heroism which inspired them?
[219] "The vanities of all others may die out, but the vanity of
a saint as regards his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away."
Ramakrishna his Life and Sayings, 1899, p. 172.
Does not, for example, the worship of material luxury and wealth,
which constitutes so large a portion of the "spirit" of our age,
make somewhat for effeminacy and unmanliness? Is not the
exclusively sympathetic and facetious way in which most children
are brought up to-day--so different from the education of a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: Florine placed herself like a post in front of him, and said,
imperiously:--
"I don't wish you to leave me again; I have my reasons for this."
The countess then, at the instigation of her husband, went up to Raoul
and said in his ear,--
"Marie. Who is this woman? Leave her at once, and meet me at the foot
of the grand staircase."
In this difficult extremity Raoul dropped Florine's arm, and though
she caught his own and held it forcibly, she was obliged, after a
moment, to let him go. Nathan disappeared into the crowd.
"What did I tell you?" said Felix in Florine's astonished ears,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: any lack of generosity from what I hear. Why should I judge her?
I have known her for, say, six hours altogether. It was enough to
feel the seduction of her native intelligence and of her splendid
physique. And all that was brought home to me so quickly," he
concluded, "because she had what some Frenchman has called the
'terrible gift of familiarity'."
Blunt had been listening moodily. He nodded assent.
"Yes!" Mills' thoughts were still dwelling in the past. "And when
saying good-bye she could put in an instant an immense distance
between herself and you. A slight stiffening of that perfect
figure, a change of the physiognomy: it was like being dismissed
The Arrow of Gold |
