| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: Whimpering she obeyed, but as to keeping the baby quiet, that was
impossible. His face was hot, little beads of sweat stood all over his
head, and he stiffened his body and cried. She held him on her knees, with
a pan of cold water beside her for the cleaned vegetables and the "ducks'
bucket" for the peelings.
"Ts--ts--ts!" she crooned, scraping and boring; "there's going to be
another soon, and you can't both keep on crying. Why don't you go to
sleep, baby? I would, if I were you. I'll tell you a dream. Once upon a
time there was a little white road--"
She shook back her head, a great lump ached in her throat and then the
tears ran down her face on to the vegetables.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: than you trust me?'
"I kept silence.
" 'And furthermore,' he continued, with a sort of good humor, 'you
will give me your advice without charging fees as long as I live, will
you not?'
" 'So be it; so long as there is no outlay.'
" 'Precisely,' said he. "Ah, by the by, you will allow me to go to see
you?' (Plainly the old man found it not so easy to assume the air of
good-humor.)
" 'I shall always be glad.'
" 'Ah! yes, but it would be very difficult to arrange of a morning.
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: holding out their hands. It is no more a father, a wife, a child,--
humanity itself is rising from its dust.
It is impossible to judge of the catholic, apostolic, and Roman faith,
unless the soul has known that deepest grief of mourning for a loved
one lying beneath the pall; unless it has felt the emotions that fill
the heart, uttered by that Hymn of Despair, by those cries that crush
the mind, by that sacred fear augmenting strophe by strophe, ascending
heavenward, which terrifies, belittles, and elevates the soul, and
leaves within our minds, as the last sound ceases, a consciousness of
immortality. We have met and struggled with the vast idea of the
Infinite. After that, all is silent in the church. No word is said;
Ferragus |
