| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: would be able to speak with a confidence quite impossible in
these latter days; the women would be able to speak, and the
man to hear. It was a beaten road just then; and I daresay
we should be no less scandalised at their plain speech than
they, if they could come back to earth, would be offended at
our waltzes and worldly fashions. This, then, was the
footing on which Knox stood with his many women friends. The
reader will see, as he goes on, how much of warmth, of
interest, and of that happy mutual dependence which is the
very gist of friendship, he contrived to ingraft upon this
somewhat dry relationship of penitent and confessor.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: So swelling surges, with a thund'ring roar,
Driv'n on each other's backs, insult the shore,
Bound o'er the rocks, incroach upon the land,
And far upon the beach eject the sand;
Then backward, with a swing, they take their way,
Repuls'd from upper ground, and seek their mother sea;
With equal hurry quit th' invaded shore,
And swallow back the sand and stones they spew'd before.
Twice were the Tuscans masters of the field,
Twice by the Latins, in their turn, repell'd.
Asham'd at length, to the third charge they ran;
Aeneid |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: the usually firm yet gentle expression of the man's face had risen to
a sort of tragic sublimity; his lips were pale as the rest of his
face, indicating a tumult within him mastered by his Breton will; a
slight sweat, which every one noticed and guessed to be cold,
moistened his brow. The notary knew but too well that these signs
might result in a drama before the criminal courts. In fact the
cashier was playing a part in connection with Modeste Mignon, which
involved to his mind sentiments of honor and loyalty of far greater
importance than mere social laws; and his present conduct proceeded
from one of those compacts which, in case disaster came of it, could
be judged only in a higher court than one of earth. The majority of
Modeste Mignon |
