| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: had a lover you would still love me as a father; that would be love!
Come, now, promise it at once, and give us your fist upon it."
"I should kill you," and Castanier smiled as he spoke.
They sat down to the dinner table, and went thence to the Gymnase.
When the first part of the performance was over, it occurred to
Castanier to show himself to some of his acquaintances in the house,
so as to turn away any suspicion of his departure. He left Mme. de la
Garde in the corner box where she was seated, according to her modest
wont, and went to walk up and down in the lobby. He had not gone many
paces before he saw the Englishman, and with a sudden return of the
sickening sensation of heat that once before had vibrated through him,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: no small degree of confusion.
After Captain Cooper had led the way into the cabin and he and
the younger man were seated over a pipe of tobacco and the
invariable bottle of fine old Jamaica rum, Mainwaring made no
attempt to refrain from questioning him as to the reason for this
singular and ominous transformation.
"I am a man of peace, James Mainwaring," Eleazer replied, "but
there are men of blood in these waters, and an appearance of
great strength is of use to protect the innocent from the wicked.
If I remained in appearance the peaceful trader I really am, how
long does thee suppose I could remain unassailed in this place?"
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: and also full of pain? Is there not a mixture of feelings in the spectator
of tragedy? and of comedy also? 'I do not understand that last.' Well,
then, with the view of lighting up the obscurity of these mixed feelings,
let me ask whether envy is painful. 'Yes.' And yet the envious man finds
something pleasing in the misfortunes of others? 'True.' And ignorance is
a misfortune? 'Certainly.' And one form of ignorance is self-conceit--a
man may fancy himself richer, fairer, better, wiser than he is? 'Yes.'
And he who thus deceives himself may be strong or weak? 'He may.' And if
he is strong we fear him, and if he is weak we laugh at him, which is a
pleasure, and yet we envy him, which is a pain? These mixed feelings are
the rationale of tragedy and comedy, and equally the rationale of the
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