| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: the summit of honor and of his science, enjoying an immense
fortune and an immense reputation; the other a humble Omega,
having neither fortune nor fame--became intimate friends.
The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the
disciple knew whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair
near the master, or on the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on
which he slept. Bianchon knew the mysteries of that temperament,
a compound of the lion and the bull, which at last expanded and
enlarged beyond measure the great man's torso, and caused his
death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the eccentricities
of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, the hopes
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: adornment of our bodies and the elevation of our minds, has made
lawful killing frightfully and needlessly expensive.
The whole question of improved armaments has been approached by the
governments of the earth in a spirit of nervous and unreflecting
haste, whereas the right way was lying plainly before them, and had
only to be pursued with calm determination. The learned vigils and
labours of a certain class of inventors should have been rewarded
with honourable liberality as justice demanded; and the bodies of
the inventors should have been blown to pieces by means of their
own perfected explosives and improved weapons with extreme
publicity as the commonest prudence dictated. By this method the
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: but my sovereign logic, for regulating public opinion - which means
commonly the opinion of half a dozen of the critical gentry - is
the following MAJOR PROPOSITION. Oysters AU NATUREL. MINOR
PROPOSITION. The same "scalloped." CONCLUSION. That - (here
insert entertainer's name) is clever, witty, wise, brilliant, - and
the rest.
- No, it isn't exactly bribery. One man has oysters, and another
epithets. It is an exchange of hospitalities; one gives a "spread"
on linen, and the other on paper, - that is all. Don't you think
you and I should be apt to do just so, if we were in the critical
line? I am sure I couldn't resist the softening influences of
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
