The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: in her eyes, the azure, love-laden desert, with its changeless skies,
its cool and starry nights. What a contrast to Clochegourde! the east
and the west! the one drawing into her every drop of moisture for her
own nourishment, the other exuding her soul, wrapping her dear ones in
her luminous atmosphere; the one quick and slender; the other slow and
massive.
Have you ever reflected on the actual meaning of the manners and
customs and morals of England? Is it not the deification of matter? a
well-defined, carefully considered Epicureanism, judiciously applied?
No matter what may be said against the statement, England is
materialist,--possibly she does not know it herself. She lays claim to
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: his sails had vanished from the waters of Japan. But
Yoshida, having put his hand to the plough, was not the man
to go back; he had entered upon this business, and, please
God, he would carry it through; and so he gave up his
professional career and remained in Yeddo to be at hand
against the next opportunity. By this behaviour he put
himself into an attitude towards his superior, the Daimio of
Choshu, which I cannot thoroughly explain. Certainly, he
became a RONYIN, a broken man, a feudal outlaw; certainly he
was liable to be arrested if he set foot upon his native
province; yet I am cautioned that "he did not really break
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: try to find out the deep trick of how to pronounce that
name and outlive it. But he didn't arrive.
When I started to the chapel, the populace un-
covered and fell back reverently to make a wide way
for me, as if I had been some kind of a superior being
-- and I was. I was aware of that. I took along a
night shift of monks, and taught them the mystery of
the pump, and set them to work, for it was plain that
a good part of the people out there were going to sit
up with the water all night, consequently it was but
right that they should have all they wanted of it. To
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |