| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: will take you round to the two houses, where you will be able to make
some interesting observations of human nature; and the scenes to which
you will be a witness will show you that in the expression of their
feelings our folk among the hills differ greatly from the dwellers in
the lowlands. Up among the mountain peaks in our canton they cling to
customs that bear the impress of an older time, and that vaguely
recall scenes in the Bible. Nature has traced out a line over our
mountain ranges; the whole appearance of the country is different on
either side of it. You will find strength of character up above,
flexibility and quickness below; they have larger ways of regarding
things among the hills, while the bent of the lowlands is always
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: gangway leading upon nothing, like a gangway leading
over the deep sea, leading to death--as if inviting us to
walk the plank at once and be done with our ridiculous
troubles. And still the air, the sky--a ghost, something
invisible was hailing the ship.
"Someone had the sense to look over, and there was
the helmsman, who had impulsively jumped overboard,
anxious to come back. He yelled and swam lustily like
a merman, keeping up with the ship. We threw him a
rope, and presently he stood amongst us streaming with
water and very crest-fallen. The captain had surren-
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: She stood, and stared in through a drug-store window,
Watching a clerk wrap up a little pill-box.
But it was late. No customers were there,--
Pitiless eyes would freeze her secret in her!
And then--what poison would she dare to ask for?
And if they asked her why, what would she say?
VII. TWO LOVERS: OVERTONES
Two lovers, here at the corner, by the steeple,
Two lovers blow together like music blowing:
And the crowd dissolves about them like a sea.
Recurring waves of sound break vaguely about them,
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