| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: particularly admire the aspect of that abundantly daughtered woman
on the other side--I mean her look of unconsciousness that the
girls are stared at by the walkers, and above all the look of the
girls themselves--losing their gaze in the depths of handsome
men's eyes without appearing to notice whether they are observing
masculine eyes or the leaves of the trees. There's praise for
you. But I am only jesting, child--you know that.'
'Piph-ph-ph--how warm it is, to be sure!' said Mr. Swancourt, as
if his mind were a long distance from all he saw. 'I declare that
my watch is so hot that I can scarcely bear to touch it to see
what the time is, and all the world smells like the inside of a
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: " 'My good Madame Lepas,' said I as I ended, 'you seem to know more
about it. Heh? If not, why have you come up to me?'
" 'On my word, as an honest woman----'
" 'Do not swear; your eyes are big with a secret. You knew Monsieur de
Merret; what sort of man was he?'
" 'Monsieur de Merret--well, you see he was a man you never could see
the top of, he was so tall! A very good gentleman, from Picardy, and
who had, as we say, his head close to his cap. He paid for everything
down, so as never to have difficulties with any one. He was hot-
tempered, you see! All our ladies liked him very much.'
" 'Because he was hot-tempered?' I asked her.
La Grande Breteche |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: puts it, "The individual withers and the world is more and more."
Yet the individual does not exist for the sake of society, as the
positivists would have us believe, but society exists for the
sake of the individual. And the test of complete social life is
the opportunity which it affords for complete individual life.
Tried by this test, our contemporary civilization will appear
seriously defective,--excellent only as a preparation for
something better.
This is the true light in which to regard it. This incessant
turmoil, this rage for accumulation of wealth, this crowding,
jostling, and trampling upon one another, cannot be regarded as
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
