| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: who had been finding fault with one American thing after another. So he
suddenly said:
"Will you tell me why you English when you enter your pews on Sunday
always immediately smell your hats? "
The Englishman stiffened. "I refuse to discuss religious subjects with
you," he said.
To be ponderous over this anecdote grieves me--but you may not know that
orthodox Englishmen usually don't kneel, as we do, after reaching their
pews; they stand for a moment, covering their faces with their
well-brushed hats: with each nation the observance is the same, it is in
the manner of the observing that we differ.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: moment of separation. Once more let me clasp thy hand, gaze once more
into thine eyes, feel with keen emotion, thy beauty and thy worth, then
resolutely tear myself away, and say;--depart!
Ferdinand. Must I stand by, and look passively on; unable to save thee, or
to give thee aid! What voice avails for lamentation! What heart but must
break under the
pressure of such anguish?
Egmont. Be calm!
Ferdinand. Thou canst be calm, thou canst renounce, led on by necessity,
thou canst advance to the direful struggle, with the courage of a hero.
What can I do? What ought I to do? Thou dost conquer thyself and us;
Egmont |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story,
Of the old time entombed.
VI.
And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
The Fall of the House of Usher |
