| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: inflamed. The arch of each eyebrow, defined by a thin down of hair,
surrounded the tortoise-shell rim of the glasses and made a couple of
circles as it were, slightly apart. If you have never observed on the
human face the effect produced by these circumferences placed one
within the other, and separated by a hollow space or line, you can
hardly imagine how perplexing such a face will be to you, especially
if pale, hollow-cheeked, and terminating in a pointed chin like that
of Mephistopheles,--a type which painters give to cats. This double
resemblance was observable on the face of Babylas Latournelle. Above
the atrocious green spectacles rose a bald crown, all the more crafty
in expression because a wig, seemingly endowed with motion, let the
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: aucun souci de personne.
LE PREMIER JUIF. C'est vrai cela. Dieu est terrible. Il brise les
faibles et les forts comme on brise le ble dans un mortier. Mais
cet homme n'a jamais vu Dieu. Personne n'a vu Dieu depuis le
prophete Elie.
HERODIAS. Faites-les taire. Ils m'ennuient
HERODE. Mais j'ai entendu dire qu'Iokanaan lui-meme est votre
prophete Elie.
UN JUIF. Cela ne se peut pas. Depuis le temps du prophete Elie il
y a plus de trois cents ans.
HERODE. Il y en a qui disent que c'est le prophete Elie.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Maecenas. Without thee no lofty task
My mind essays. Up! break the sluggish bonds
Of tarriance; with loud din Cithaeron calls,
Steed-taming Epidaurus, and thy hounds,
Taygete; and hark! the assenting groves
With peal on peal reverberate the roar.
Yet must I gird me to rehearse ere long
The fiery fights of Caesar, speed his name
Through ages, countless as to Caesar's self
From the first birth-dawn of Tithonus old.
If eager for the prized Olympian palm
Georgics |
