| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: beauty. He was a tall, lean man, with a minatory countenance set off
by terrible eyes in deep black circles, under enormous eyebrows; and
his eloquence, very unlike his love-making, could be incisive.
Monsieur Gravier was a little, round man, who in the days of the
Empire had been a charming ballad-singer; it was this accomplishment
that had won him the high position of Paymaster-General of the forces.
Having mixed himself up in certain important matters in Spain with
generals at that time in opposition, he had made the most of these
connections to the Minister, who, in consideration of the place he had
lost, promised him the Receivership at Sancerre, and then allowed him
to pay for the appointment. The frivolous spirit and light tone of the
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: demand for the coat-of-arms that is lawfully mine. Can you say as
much for yourself?
ELIZABETH. _[almost beside herself]_ Another word; and I begin with
mine own hands the work the hangman shall finish.
SHAKESPEAR. You are no true Tudor: this baggage here has as good a
right to your royal seat as you. What maintains you on the throne of
England? Is it your renowned wit? your wisdom that sets at naught the
craftiest statesmen of the Christian world? No. Tis the mere chance
that might have happened to any milkmaid, the caprice of Nature that
made you the most wondrous piece of beauty the age hath seen.
_[Elizabeth's raised fists, on the point of striking him, fall to her
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: and a part of two falls, and I expect that a dozen or fifteen years
hence the water will again be as low as I have ever known it.
Flint's Pond, a mile eastward, allowing for the disturbance
occasioned by its inlets and outlets, and the smaller intermediate
ponds also, sympathize with Walden, and recently attained their
greatest height at the same time with the latter. The same is true,
as far as my observation goes, of White Pond.
This rise and fall of Walden at long intervals serves this use
at least; the water standing at this great height for a year or
more, though it makes it difficult to walk round it, kills the
shrubs and trees which have sprung up about its edge since the last
Walden |
