| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: or his language; by me striplings spend their judgment, as they do
their estate, before it comes into their hands. It is I who have
deposed wit and knowledge from their empire over poetry, and
advanced myself in their stead. And shall a few upstart Ancients
dare to oppose me? But come, my aged parent, and you, my children
dear, and thou, my beauteous sister; let us ascend my chariot, and
haste to assist our devout Moderns, who are now sacrificing to us a
hecatomb, as I perceive by that grateful smell which from thence
reaches my nostrils."
The goddess and her train, having mounted the chariot, which was
drawn by tame geese, flew over infinite regions, shedding her
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: glad to find a few more such hiding-places; for during the
first few weeks the house had been crammed with guests so
closely that the very mice had been ill-accommodated and
obliged to sit up all night, which had caused them much
discomfort and many audible disagreements.
But this first tumult had passed away; and now there remained
only the various nephews and nieces of the house, including a
due proportion of small children. Two final guests were to
arrive that day, bringing the latest breath of Europe on their
wings,--Philip Malbone, Hope's betrothed; and little Emilia,
Hope's half-sister.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: vast copper dome which crowns the Halle-auble? Madame is there by
morning. She is engaged at the markets, and makes by this occupation
twelve thousand francs a year, people say. Monsieur, when Madame is
up, passes into a gloomy office, where he lends money till the week-
end to the tradesmen of his district. By nine o'clock he is at the
passport office, of which he is one of the minor officials. By evening
he is at the box-office of the Theatre Italien, or of any other
theatre you like. The children are put out to nurse, and only return
to be sent to college or to boarding-school. Monsieur and Madame live
on the third floor, have but one cook, give dances in a salon twelve
foot by eight, lit by argand lamps; but they give a hundred and fifty
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
