| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: The front of this shop of the Sieur Lecamus was all window, formed of
sashes of leaded panes, which made the interior very dark. The furs
were taken for selection to the houses of rich customers. As for those
who came to the shop to buy, the goods were shown to them outside,
between the pillars,--the arcade being, let us remark, encumbered
during the day-time with tables, and clerks sitting on stools, such as
we all remember seeing some fifteen years ago under the "piliers des
Halles." From these outposts, the clerks and apprentices talked,
questioned, answered each other, and called to the passers,--customs
which the great Walter Scott has made use of in his "Fortunes of
Nigel."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: pretender to physick and astrology. I shall not directly fall on
the many gross errors, nor expose the notorious absurdities of
this prostituted libeller, till I have let the learned world
fairly into the controversy depending, and then leave the
unprejudiced to judge of the merits and justice of the cause.
It was towards the conclusion of the year 1707, when an impudent
pamphlet crept into the world, intituled, 'Predictions, etc.' by
Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq; -- Amongst the many arrogant assertions
laid down by that lying spirit of divination, he was pleas'd to
pitch on the Cardinal de Noailles and myself, among many other
eminent and illustrious persons, that were to die within the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: with a horn lantern in his hand. His legs were weary, but his mind
was at ease, free from the presentiment of change. The sense of
security more frequently springs from habit than from conviction,
and for this reason it often subsists after such a change in the
conditions as might have been expected to suggest alarm. The lapse
of time during which a given event has not happened, is, in this
logic of habit, constantly alleged as a reason why the event should
never happen, even when the lapse of time is precisely the added
condition which makes the event imminent. A man will tell you that
he has worked in a mine for forty years unhurt by an accident as a
reason why he should apprehend no danger, though the roof is
Silas Marner |
