| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: to look up the Misses Uxbridge, his nieces, on the other side of
the hall.
"Paterfamilias Uxbridge has left his brood in my charge," he
said. "I try to do my duty," and he held out a twisted pearl-
colored glove, which he had pulled off while talking. What white
nervous fingers he had! I thought they might pinch like steel.
"You suppose," he repeated.
"I do not look at Newport."
"Have you observed Waterbury?"
"I observe what is in my sphere."
"Oh!"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: festivals a spectacle worth seeing; and further, with regard to all
those public shows demanded by the state, wherever held,[1] whether in
the grounds of the Acadamy or the Lyceum, at Phaleron or within the
hippodrome, it is his business as commander of the knights to see that
every pageant of the sort is splendidly exhibited.
[1] Cf. Theophr. "Ch." vii. (Jebb ad loc. p. 204, n. 25).
But these, again, are memoranda.[2] To the question how the several
features of the pageant shall receive their due impress of beauty, I
will now address myself.
[2] Read {tauta men alla upomnemata}, or if with Pantazid. {apla},
trans. "these are simply memoranda."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: of "O filii, o filioe" in the paschal choir. I was born into a new
life, I was something to her! I slept on purple and fine linen. Flames
darted before my closed eyelids, chasing each other in the darkness
like threads of fire in the ashes of burned paper. In my dreams her
voice became, though I cannot describe it, palpable, an atmosphere of
light and fragrance wrapping me, a melody enfolding my spirit. On the
morrow her greeting expressed the fulness of feelings that remained
unuttered, and from that moment I was initiated into the secrets of
her voice.
That day was to be one of the most decisive of my life. After dinner
we walked on the heights across a barren plain where no herbage grew;
The Lily of the Valley |
