| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: "For a man who declares he does not hate us," said Rastignac, "you
treat us rather roughly. According to you we are almost faithless to
the constitutional compact, and our policy, to your thinking ambiguous
and tortuous, gives us a certain distant likeness to Monsieur
Doublemain in the 'Mariage de Figaro.'"
"I do not say that the evil is as deep as that," replied Sallenauve;
"perhaps, after all, /we/ are simply a /faiseur/,--using the word, be
it understood, in the sense of a meddler, one who wants to have his
finger in everything."
"Ah! monsieur, but suppose we are the ablest politician in the
country."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: bring you the night to rest therein? can ye not then see?' But of
His mercy He has made for you the night and the day, that ye may
rest therein, and crave of His grace, haply ye may give thanks.
And the day when He shall call them and shall say, 'Where are my
partners whom ye did pretend?' And we will pluck from every nation a
witness; and we will say, 'Bring your proof and know that the truth is
God's;' and that which they had devised shall stray away from them.
Verily, Korah was of the people of Moses, and he was outrageous
against them; and we gave him treasuries of which the keys would
bear down a band of men endowed with strength. When his people said to
him, 'Exult not; verily, God loves not those who exult! but crave,
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: beauty I can but feebly echo, think of what was the scene which
presented itself, in his afternoon walk, to a designer of the
Gothic school of Pisa - Nino Pisano or any of his men (22):
On each side of a bright river he saw rise a line of brighter
palaces, arched and pillared, and inlaid with deep red porphyry,
and with serpentine; along the quays before their gates were riding
troops of knights, noble in face and form, dazzling in crest and
shield; horse and man one labyrinth of quaint colour and gleaming
light - the purple, and silver, and scarlet fringes flowing over
the strong limbs and clashing mall, like sea-waves over rocks at
sunset. Opening on each side from the river were gardens, courts,
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