| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: pretty women, whose pleasant chatter and frank manners were in harmony
with German cordiality. Really, if you could have seen, as I saw, this
joyous gathering of persons who had drawn in their commercial claws,
and were speculating only on the pleasures of life, you would have
found no cause to hate usurious discounts, or to curse bankruptcies.
Mankind can't always be doing evil. Even in the society of pirates one
might find a few sweet hours during which we could fancy their
sinister craft a pleasure-boat rocking on the deep.
"Before we part, Monsieur Hermann will, I trust, tell one more German
story to terrify us?"
These words were said at dessert by a pale fair girl, who had read, no
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: round and red as suns, their eyes popping, for they had
been blowing on their brass instruments since dawn.
"General," Luis said pushing his way through the men
on horseback, "a messenger has arrived with orders to
proceed immediately to the pursuit and capture of
Orozco and his men."
Faces that had been dark and gloomy were now il-
lumined with joy.
"To Jalisco, boys!" cried Blondie, pounding on the
counter.
"Make ready, all you darling Jalisco girls of my heart,
The Underdogs |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: poets, has gone a great way to put humanity in error; nay, in
many philosophies the error has been embodied and laid down
with every circumstance of logic; although in real life the
bustle and swiftness, in leaving people little time to think,
have not left them time enough to go dangerously wrong in
practice.
As a matter of fact, although few things are spoken of
with more fearful whisperings than this prospect of death, few
have less influence on conduct under healthy circumstances.
We have all heard of cities in South America built upon the
side of fiery mountains, and how, even in this tremendous
|
