| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: so cleverly described as the /glacis/ of the Alps. Carried back by
memory to the time when his young and eager brain was as yet
untroubled by the ecstasy of his too exuberant imagination he listened
with religious awe and would not utter a single word. The Count
respected the internal travail of his soul. Till half-past twelve
Gambara sat so perfectly motionless that the frequenters of the opera
house took him, no doubt, for what he was--a man drunk.
On their return, Andrea began to attack Meyerbeer's work, in order to
wake up Gambara, who sat sunk in the half-torpid state common in
drunkards.
"What is there in that incoherent score to reduce you to a condition
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: visit to Prospero, a man lately raised to wealth by a
lucky project, and too much intoxicated by sudden
elevation, or too little polished by thought and
conversation, to enjoy his present fortune with elegance
and decency.
We set out in the world together; and for a long
time mutually assisted each other in our exigencies,
as either happened to have money or influence
beyond his immediate necessities. You know that
nothing generally endears men so much as participation
of dangers and misfortunes; I therefore always
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: mischievous have to die. They ought to die. They ought to
be willing to die. It's a sort of disloyalty, after all, to live
and taint the race. And they can't be happy. Moreover, dying's
none so dreadful; it's the funking makes it bad. And in all
those places we shall gather. Our district will be London.
And we may even be able to keep a watch, and run about
in the open when the Martians keep away. Play cricket, per-
haps. That's how we shall save the race. Eh? It's a possible
thing? But saving the race is nothing in itself. As I say,
that's only being rats. It's saving our knowledge and adding
to it is the thing. There men like you come in. There's books,
War of the Worlds |
