| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: by just so much as she did thus see, to make me suppose she
didn't, and at the same time, without showing anything,
arrive at a guess as to whether I myself did! It was a pity
that I needed once more to describe the portentous little activity
by which she sought to divert my attention--the perceptible
increase of movement, the greater intensity of play, the singing,
the gabbling of nonsense, and the invitation to romp.
Yet if I had not indulged, to prove there was nothing in it,
in this review, I should have missed the two or three dim elements
of comfort that still remained to me. I should not for instance have
been able to asseverate to my friend that I was certain--which was
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: Which leads to Parma: when you have done your business
We will ride hence, and by to-morrow night -
GUIDO
It cannot be.
MORANZONE
Nay, but it shall.
GUIDO
Listen, Lord Moranzone,
I am resolved not to kill this man.
MORANZONE
Surely my ears are traitors, speak again:
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: some toothsome sauce in which it is caught and intoxicated like a fly
with a black-lead. Moreover, since 1830 what honors and emoluments
have been scattered throughout France to stimulate the zeal and self-
love of the "progressive and intelligent masses"! Titles, medals,
diplomas, a sort of legion of honor invented for the army of martyrs,
have followed each other with marvellous rapidity. Speculators in the
manufactured products of the intellect have developed a spice, a
ginger, all their own. From this have come premiums, forestalled
dividends, and that conscription of noted names which is levied
without the knowledge of the unfortunate writers who bear them, and
who thus find themselves actual co-operators in more enterprises than
|
