| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: beds reveal to us the traces of rain-drops and other atmospheric
phenomena similar to those of our own day, so, in estimating the
history of the past, the introduction of no force must be allowed
whose workings we cannot observe among the phenomena around us. To
lay down canons of ultra-historical credibility for the explanation
of events which happen to have preceded us by a few thousand years,
is as thoroughly unscientific as it is to intermingle preternatural
in geological theories.
Whatever the canons of art may be, no difficulty in history is so
great as to warrant the introduction of a spirit of spirit [Greek
text which cannot be reproduced], in the sense of a violation of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: Fray Ignatio, too, said wisely, ``It is not always God who
cometh in dreams!''
But the images of Gutierrez's dreams seemed to him to
be seated in Cathay and India. They bred in him belief
that he was coming to happiness by that sea road that
glistered before us. He and Roderigo de Escobedo began
to talk with assurance of what they should find. Having
small knowledge of travelers' tales they made application
to the Admiral who, nothing loth, answered them out of
Marco Polo, Mandeville and Pedro de Aliaco.
But the ardor of his mind was such that he outwent his
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: lady was very ill; she had, no doubt, given up all hope, for she died
without choosing to send for a doctor; indeed, many of our ladies
fancied she was not quite right in her head. Well, sir, my curiosity
was strangely excited by hearing that Madame de Merret had need of my
services. Nor was I the only person who took an interest in the
affair. That very night, though it was already late, all the town knew
that I was going to Merret.
" 'The waiting-woman replied but vaguely to the questions I asked her
on the way; nevertheless, she told me that her mistress had received
the Sacrament in the course of the day at the hands of the Cure of
Merret, and seemed unlikely to live through the night. It was about
La Grande Breteche |
