| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: out and get overboard through the open quarter-deck port.
I've had them both fastened up. Use a rope's end to lower
yourself into the water so as to avoid a splash--you know.
It could be heard and cause some beastly complication."
He kept silent for a while, then whispered, "I understand."
"I won't be there to see you go," I began with an effort.
"The rest . . . I only hope I have understood, too."
"You have. From first to last"--and for the first time there
seemed to be a faltering, something strained in his whisper.
He caught hold of my arm, but the ringing of the supper bell
made me start. He didn't though; he only released his grip.
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: dog to its master, sharing the discomforts of the military life, which
indeed she comforted, as content under the roof of a garret as beneath
the silken hangings of opulence. Italian and Spanish both, she
fulfilled very scrupulously the duties of religion, and more than once
she had said to love:--
"Return to-morrow; to-day I belong to God."
But this slime permeated with gold and perfumes, this careless
indifference to all things, these unbridled passions, these religious
beliefs cast into that heart like diamonds into mire, this life begun,
and ended, in a hospital, these gambling chances transferred to the
soul, to the very existence,--in short, this great alchemy, for which
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: is the partner in a common estate, must needs be her husband's
counterpoise and counterpart for good; since, if it is through the
transactions of the husband, as a rule, that goods of all sorts find
their way into the house, yet it is by means of the wife's economy and
thrift that the greater part of the expenditure is checked, and on the
successful issue or the mishandling of the same depends the increase
or impoverishment of a whole estate. And so with regard to the
remaining arts and sciences, I think I can point out to you the ablest
performers in each case, if you feel you have any further need of
help.[16]
[15] Aspasia. See "Mem." II. vi. 36.
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