| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: Mrs. Dunster's hands were clasped forcibly under her chin, but she,
dear soul, was looking sorrowfully at Willie. The model nephew!
In this strange state! So very much flushed! The careful
disposition of the thin hairs across Willie's bald spot was
deplorably disarranged, and the spot itself was red and, as it
were, steaming.
"What's the matter, Geoffrey?" The Editor seemed disconcerted by
the silent attitudes round him, as though he had expected all these
people to shout and dance. "You have him on the island - haven't
you?"
"Oh, yes: I have him there," said Renouard, without looking up.
Within the Tides |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: civilisation requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there.
Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting
work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible. Human
slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralising. On mechanical
slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world
depends. And when scientific men are no longer called upon to go
down to a depressing East End and distribute bad cocoa and worse
blankets to starving people, they will have delightful leisure in
which to devise wonderful and marvellous things for their own joy
and the joy of everyone else. There will be great storages of
force for every city, and for every house if required, and this
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: miniature beside a portrait in oils.
" 'She is rich!' exclaimed Godefroid, going back to Rastignac in the
ballroom.
" 'Who?'
" 'That young lady.'
" 'Oh, Isaure d'Aldrigger? Why, yes. The mother is a widow; Nucingen
was once a clerk in her husband's bank at Strasbourg. Do you want to
see them again? Just turn off a compliment for Mme. de Restaud; she is
giving a ball the day after to-morrow; the Baroness d'Aldrigger and
her two daughters will be there. You will have an invitation.'
"For three days Godefroid beheld Isaure in the camera obscura of his
|
