| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: red face and muddy eyes. He described himself as a journalist as
certain kind of women give themselves out as actresses in the dock
of a police-court.
"He used to introduce himself to strangers as a man with a mission
to track out abuses and fight them whenever found. He would also
hint that he was a martyr. And it's a fact that he had been
kicked, horsewhipped, imprisoned, and hounded with ignominy out of
pretty well every place between Ceylon and Shanghai, for a
professional blackmailer.
"I suppose, in that trade, you've got to have active wits and sharp
ears. It's not likely that he overheard every word Davidson said
Within the Tides |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: We were received with every mark of honour
and conducted to the guest-chamber. All the
same, I did not forget quietly to mark where
our horses were put, in case anything unforeseen
should happen."
"How are weddings celebrated amongst
them?" I asked the staff-captain.
"Oh, in the usual way. First of all, the
Mullah reads them something out of the Koran;
then gifts are bestowed upon the young couple
and all their relations; the next thing is eating
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: the terrifying music is softened to gentler hues, like a storm dying
away, and ends in the florid prettiness of a duet wholly unlike
anything that has come before it. After the turmoil of a camp full of
errant heroes, we have a picture of love. Poet! I thank thee! My heart
could not have borne much more. If I could not here and there pluck
the daisies of a French light opera, if I could not hear the gentle
wit of a woman able to love and to charm, I could not endure the
terrible deep note on which Bertram comes in, saying to his son: '/Si
je la permets/!' when Robert had promised the princess he adores that
he will conquer with the arms she has bestowed on him.
"The hopes of the gambler cured by love, the love of a most beautiful
Gambara |
