| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: is so remarkable in yours. You are going on sedately travelling
through your ages, decently changing with the years to the proper
tune. And here am I, quite out of my true course, and with nothing
in my foolish elderly head but love-stories. This must repose upon
some curious distinction of temperaments. I gather from a phrase,
boldly autobiographical, that you are - well, not precisely growing
thin. Can that be the difference?
It is rather funny that this matter should come up just now, as I
am at present engaged in treating a severe case of middle age in
one of my stories - 'The Justice-Clerk.' The case is that of a
woman, and I think that I am doing her justice. You will be
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: he might have said, things infinitely better and more moving than
those stilted phrases of his, those accursed, sophisticated,
pretentious, fine-spun phrases, though, luckily, the punctuation had
been pretty bad and the lines shockingly crooked. He tried not to
think, not to feel; but he felt and thought, and was wretched. If he
had been thirty years old, he might have got drunk, but the innocence
of three-and-twenty knew nothing of the resources of opium nor of the
expedients of advanced civilization. Nor had he at hand one of those
good friends of the Parisian pattern who understand so well how to say
/Poete, non dolet!/ by producing a bottle of champagne, or alleviate
the agony of suspense by carrying you off somewhere to make a night of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: other letters to do before the mail goes. - Yours ever,
R. L. STEVENSON.
CHAPTER XLII
AUG. 7TH
MY DEAR COLVIN, - This is to inform you, sir, that on Sunday
last (and this is Tuesday) I attained my ideal here, and we
had a paper chase in Vailele Plantation, about 15 miles, I
take it, from us; and it was all that could be wished. It is
really better fun than following the hounds, since you have
to be your own hound, and a precious bad hound I was,
following every false scent on the whole course to the bitter
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