| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: aesthetic enjoyments, clogs the individuality, causing it to rest satisfied
in the mere passive possession of the results of the labour of others,
without feeling any necessity or desire for further productive activity of
its own. (Of the other deleterious effects of unearned wealth on the
individual or class possessing it, such as its power of lessening human
sympathy, &c., &c., we do not now speak, as while ultimately and
indirectly, undoubtedly, tending to disintegrate a society, they do not
necessarily and immediately enervate it, which enervation is the point we
are here considering.)
The exact material condition at which this point will be reached will vary,
not only with the race and the age, but with the individual. A Marcus
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: Need I tell you the impression which this scene made upon me, or
can you not imagine it?
"You are going to have supper with me," she said to me;
"meanwhile, take a book. I am going into my dressing-room for a
moment."
She lit the candles of a candelabra, opened a door at the foot of
the bed, and disappeared.
I began to think over this poor girl's life, and my love for her
was mingled with a great pity. I walked to and fro in the room,
thinking over things, when Prudence entered.
"Ah, you here?"' she said, "where is Marguerite?"
Camille |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: but when one cometh between me and my meat, I am a raging lion,
as it were."
"Lion or no lion," quoth the valorous Cook, "come thou straight forth,
else thou art a coward heart as well as a knavish thief."
"Ha!" cried Little John, "coward's name have I never had;
so, look to thyself, good Cook, for I come forth straight,
the roaring lion I did speak of but now."
Then he, too, drew his sword and came out of the pantry;
then, putting themselves into position, they came slowly together,
with grim and angry looks; but suddenly Little John lowered his point.
"Hold, good Cook!" said he. "Now, I bethink me it were ill of us
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
