| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: that when half Russia had been conquered and the inhabitants were
ficeing to distant provinces, and one levy after another was being
raised for the defense of the fatherland, all Russians from the
greatest to the least were solely engaged in sacrificing themselves,
saving their fatherland, or weeping over its downfall. The tales and
descriptions of that time without exception speak only of the
self-sacrifice, patriotic devotion, despair, grief, and the heroism of
the Russians. But it was not really so. It appears so to us because we
see only the general historic interest of that time and do not see all
the personal human interests that people had. Yet in reality those
personal interests of the moment so much transcend the general
War and Peace |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: quintette is the return to the homelier feelings of life after the
grandiose picture of two stupendous and national emotions:--general
misery, general joy, expressed with the magic force stamped on them by
divine vengeance and with the miraculous atmosphere of the Bible
narrative. Now, was not I right?" added Massimilla, as the noble
/sretto/ came to a close.
"Voci di giubilo,
D' in'orno eccheggino,
Di pace l' Iride
Per noi spunto."
(Cries of joy sound about us. The rainbow of peace dawns upon us.)
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: within this wide land shall fall. They shall be slain, their
cities shall be stamped flat, their wealth shall be wrung from
them, and their children shall eat the bread of slavery and drink
the water of affliction. Choose, ye people of the Otomie. Will
you stand by the men of your own customs and country, though they
have been your foes at times, or will you throw in your lot with
the stranger? Choose, ye people of the Otomie, and know this, that
on your choice and that of the other men of Anahuac, depends the
fate of Anahuac. I am your princess, and you should obey me, but
to-day I issue no command. I say choose between the alliance of
the Aztec and the yoke of the Teule, and may the god above the
Montezuma's Daughter |
