| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: of sympathy and the desire of approbation, the moral qualities
begin to make their appearance, and intellectual instead of bodily
excellence becomes the qualification for sovereignty.
Other points, as the rise of law and the like, are dwelt on in a
somewhat modern spirit, and although Polybius seems not to have
employed the inductive method of research in this question, or
rather, I should say, of the hierarchical order of the rational
progress of ideas in life, he is not far removed from what the
laborious investigations of modern travellers have given us.
And, indeed, as regards the working of the speculative faculty in
the creation of history, it is in all respects marvellous how that
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: was no sooner over than James seemed to come began to make apologies.
He had an appointment of a private nature in the town (it was with the
French nobleman, he told me), and we would please excuse him till about
noon. Meanwhile he carried his daughter aside to the far end of the
room, where he seemed to speak rather earnestly and she to listen with
much inclination.
"I am caring less and less about this man James," said Alan. "There's
something no right with the man James, and I shouldnae wonder but what
Alan Breck would give an eye to him this day. I would like fine to see
yon French nobleman, Davie; and I daresay you could find an employ to
yoursel, and that would be to speir at the lassie for some news o' your
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: single province left. Two figures arise from among the people--a poor
herd girl, that very Jeanne Darc of whom we were speaking, and a
burgher named Jacques Coeur. The girl brings the power of virginity,
the strength of her arm; the burgher gives his gold, and the kingdom
is saved. The maid is taken prisoner, and the King, who could have
ransomed her, leaves her to be burned alive. The King allows his
courtier to accuse the great burgher of capital crime, and they rob
him and divide all his wealth among themselves. The spoils of an
innocent man, hunted down, brought to bay, and driven into exile by
the Law, went to enrich five noble houses; and the father of the
Archbishop of Bourges left the kingdom for ever without one sou of all
|
