| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: appears so very necessary when time has laid its soothing hand upon
the passionate misunderstandings and the passionate desires of
great peoples. "Le temps," as a distinguished Frenchman has said,
"est un galant homme." He fosters the spirit of concord and
justice, in whose work there is as much glory to be reaped as in
the deeds of arms.
One of them disorganized by revolutionary changes, the other rusted
in the neglect of a decayed monarchy, the two fleets opposed to us
entered the contest with odds against them from the first. By the
merit of our daring and our faithfulness, and the genius of a great
leader, we have in the course of the war augmented our advantage
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: The torch in Nance's hand had flashed through a
crack into her face once. It was the flame of a
revolver in the hands of a thief in Jim's den in New
York. She merely felt it. Her eyes had been gouged
out and she was blind. A gang of his coarse companions
were holding a council, cursing, drinking, fighting.
Jim had sprung between two snarling brutes and knocked
the revolver into the air. The flame had scorched her
face.
With an oath he had slapped her.
"Get out, you damned little fool!" he growled.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: prejudice, always alive and working.
An Original: "My dear fellow, I've seen no galoshes in her
antechamber; consequently you can visit her without compromising
yourself, and play cards there without fear; if there ARE any
scoundrels in her salons, they are people of quality and come in their
carriages; such persons never quarrel."
Old man belonging to the genus Observer: "If you call on Madame
Firmiani, my good friend, you will find a beautiful woman sitting at
her ease by the corner of her fireplace. She will scarcely rise to
receive you,--she only does that for women, ambassadors, dukes, and
persons of great distinction. She is very gracious, she possesses
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