| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: anywhere but on the carpets I laid down."
" 'Here the lover gave an impatient growl, as a man annoyed by so much
delay.
" 'The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of
the house, and we stole in like thieves. Presently the girl's light
hand removed the bandage. I found myself in a lofty and spacious room,
badly lighted by a smoky lamp. The window was open, but the jealous
husband had fitted it with iron bars. I was in the bottom of a sack,
as it were.
" 'On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with
a muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: around the majestic book; and Eva loved it, because it woke in her
strange yearnings, and strong, dim emotions, such as impassioned,
imaginative children love to feel.
The parts that pleased her most were the Revelations and the
Prophecies,--parts whose dim and wondrous imagery, and fervent
language, impressed her the more, that she questioned vainly of
their meaning;--and she and her simple friend, the old child and
the young one, felt just alike about it. All that they knew was,
that they spoke of a glory to be revealed,--a wondrous something
yet to come, wherein their soul rejoiced, yet knew not why; and
though it be not so in the physical, yet in moral science that
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: out that if I had detained him we would have been committed to a
course of action on which I wished to know your precise intentions
first."
The great personage rose heavily, an imposing shadowy form in the
greenish gloom of the room.
"I'll see the Attorney-General to-night, and will send for you to-
morrow morning. Is there anything more you'd wish to tell me now?"
The Assistant Commissioner had stood up also, slender and flexible.
"I think not, Sir Ethelred, unless I were to enter into details
which - "
"No. No details, please."
The Secret Agent |
