| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: Where the proud titles of "My Lord! Your Grace!"
To humble Mr. and plain Sir give place.
Our Author pictures not from foreign climes
The fashions or the follies of the times;
But has confin'd the subject of his work
To the gay scenes--the circles of New-York.
On native themes his Muse displays her pow'rs;
If ours the faults, the virtues too are ours.
Why should our thoughts to distant countries roam,
When each refinement may be found at home?
Who travels now to ape the rich or great,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: altered his position in his chair. The fixed idea
of despoiling Rostocker, Aronson, Ganz, Rothfoere,
Lewis, and Mendel of their last sixpence had been
in no wise affected by this entertaining homily.
There appeared to be no need of pretending that it
had been. If he knew anything of men and their manners,
his titled friend would not object to a change of topic.
"Lord Chaldon," he said abruptly, "we've talked
enough about general matters. While you're here,
we might as well go into the subject of the Company.
Our annual meeting is pretty nearly due--but I think
The Market-Place |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: distances from one another. Each has her own hunting-grounds,
where there is no reason to fear the competition that would result
from the close proximity of the nets. In my cages, on the other
hand, there is cohabitation. In order to save space, I lodge two
or three Epeirae in the same cage. My easy-going captives live
together in peace. There is no strife between them, no encroaching
on the neighbour's property. Each of them weaves herself a
rudimentary web, as far from the rest as possible, and here, rapt
in contemplation, as though indifferent to what the others are
doing, she awaits the hop of the Locust.
Nevertheless, these close quarters have their drawbacks when
The Life of the Spider |
