| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: think I should choose as my instance any of those great
architectural wrecks that seem most to impress contemporary
writers. I have seen the injuries and ruins of the cathedrals at
Arras and Soissons and the wreckage of the great church at Saint
Eloi, I have visited the Hotel de Ville at Arras and seen
photographs of the present state of the Cloth Hall at Ypres--a
building I knew very well indeed in its days of pride--and I have
not been very deeply moved. I suppose that one is a little
accustomed to Gothic ruins, and that there is always something
monumental about old buildings; it is only a question of degree
whether they are more or less tumble-down. I was far more
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: domestic life; but as to which the finger of God, often called
chance, supplies the place of human justice, and in which the
moral is none the less striking and instructive because it is
pointed by a scoffer.
To my mind, such deeds contain great lessons for the Family
and for Maternity. We shall some day realize, perhaps too
late, the effects produced by the diminution of paternal
authority. That authority, which formerly ceased only at the
death of the father, was the sole human tribunal before which
domestic crimes could be arraigned; kings themselves, on
special occasions, took part in executing its judgments.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Poems of William Blake by William Blake: II.
O little Cloud the virgin said, I charge thee to tell me
Why thou complainest now when in one hour thou fade away:
Then we shall seek thee but not find: ah Thel is like to thee.
I pass away, yet I complain, and no one hears my voice.
The Cloud then shewd his golden head & his bright form emerg'd.
Hovering and glittering on the air before the face of Thel.
O virgin know'st thou not our steeds drink of the golden springs
Where Luvah doth renew his horses: lookst thou on my youth.
And fearest thou because I vanish and am seen no more.
Nothing remains; O maid I tell thee, when I pass away.
Poems of William Blake |
