| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: concerns with the dull trowel of their mediocrity, bragging of their
impotence, which they count for conduct and integrity. This sort of
social /prizemen/ infests the administration, the army, the
magistracy, the chambers, the courts. They diminish and level down the
country and constitute, in some manner, in the body politic, a lymph
which infects it and renders it flabby. These honest folk call men of
talent immoral or rogues. If such rogues require to be paid for their
services, at least their services are there; whereas the other sort do
harm and are respected by the mob; but, happily for France, elegant
youth stigmatizes them ceaselessly under the name of louts.
At the first glance, then, it is natural to consider as very distinct
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: man is now well advanced in years, and his gradual decrease of
strength, with increase of weakness, hath brought him to the
misery that thou seest." "And," said he, "what will be his end?"
They answered, "Naught but death will relieve him." "But," said
he, "is this the appointed doom of all mankind? Or doth it
happen only to some?" They answered, "Unless death come before
hand to remove him, no dweller on earth, but, as life advanceth,
must make trial of this lot." Then the young prince asked in how
many years this overtook a man, and whether the doom of death was
without reprieve, and whether there was no way to escape it, and
avoid coming to such misery. They answered him, "In eighty or an
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand,
a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a
blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing
quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably
distant or near by -- it seemed both. Its recurrence was
regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He
awaited each new stroke with impatience and -- he knew not
why -- apprehension. The intervals of silence grew
progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With
their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength
and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the trust of a knife;
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
