| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: has seldom an offer of kindness to make to a woman, but she has a
presentiment of it some moments before. -
Nature arms her with it, said I, for immediate preservation. - But
I think, said she, looking in my face, I had no evil to apprehend,
-and, to deal frankly with you, had determined to accept it. - If I
had - (she stopped a moment) - I believe your good will would have
drawn a story from me, which would have made pity the only
dangerous thing in the journey.
In saying this, she suffered me to kiss her hand twice, and with a
look of sensibility mixed with concern, she got out of the chaise,
- and bid adieu.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: student's hand, and Eugene felt a tear fall on it.
"You will succeed," the old man said. "God is just, you see. I
know an honest man when I see him, and I can tell you, there are
not many men like you. I am to have another dear child in you, am
I? There, go to sleep; you can sleep; you are not yet a father.
She was crying! and I have to be told about it!--and I was
quietly eating my dinner, like an idiot, all the time--I, who
would sell the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to save one tear to
either of them."
"An honest man!" said Eugene to himself as he lay down. "Upon my
word, I think I will be an honest man all my life; it is so
Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: Under the shelter of the neighbor wall,
Well guarded with his troops and soldiers all.
XLIX
Like storms of hail the stones fell down from high,
Cast from their bulwarks, flankers, ports and towers,
The shafts and quarries from their engines fly,
As thick as falling drops in April showers:
The French withdrew, they list not press too nigh,
The Saracens escaped all the powers,
But now Rinaldo from the earth upleapt,
Where by the leg his steed had long him kept;
|
