| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: order to pass through it, the Penduline, small though he be, has to
force the elastic partition, which yields slightly and then
contracts. Lastly, the house is furnished with a mattress of
first-quality cotton. Here lie from six to eight white eggs, the
size of a cherry-stone.
Well, this wonderful nest is a barbarous casemate compared with
that of the Banded Epeira. As regards shape, this stocking-foot
cannot be mentioned in the same breath with the Spider's elegant
and faultlessly-rounded balloon. The fabric of mixed cotton and
tow is a rustic frieze beside the spinstress' satin; the
suspension-straps are clumsy cables compared with her delicate silk
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: They could no longer be induced to play at Pope-Joan or blind-
man's-buff; they could endure no dances but quadrilles, which
nobody had ever heard of in Little Britain; and they took to
reading novels, talking bad French, and playing upon the piano.
Their brother, too, who had been articled to an attorney, set up
for a dandy and a critic, characters hitherto unknown in these
parts; and he confounded the worthy folks exceedingly by
talking about Kean, the opera, and the "Edinburgh Review."
What was still worse, the Lambs gave a grand ball, to which
they neglected to invite any of their old neighbors; but they had
a great deal of genteel company from Theobald's Road, Red-
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: the king is never a penny the worse.
(1) Champollion-Figeac, pp. 279-82.
(2) Michelet, iv. pp. 123-4.
II.
From the battle of Agincourt (Oct. 1415) dates the second
period of Charles's life. The English reader will remember
the name of Orleans in the play of HENRY V.; and it is at
least odd that we can trace a resemblance between the puppet
and the original. The interjection, "I have heard a sonnet
begin so to one's mistress" (Act iii. scene 7), may very well
indicate one who was already an expert in that sort of
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