| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: disdainfully indulgent in small. Pons' notes were drowned before long
in floods of German harmony and the music of Rossini; and if in 1824
he was known as an agreeable musician, a composer of various drawing-
room melodies, judge if he was likely to be famous in 183l! In 1844,
the year in which the single drama of this obscure life began, Sylvain
Pons was of no more value than an antediluvian semiquaver; dealers in
music had never heard of his name, though he was still composing, on
scanty pay, for his own orchestra or for neighboring theatres.
And yet, the worthy man did justice to the great masters of our day; a
masterpiece finely rendered brought tears to his eyes; but his
religion never bordered on mania, as in the case of Hoffmann's
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: in the contrary sense everything that was said to him.
Notwithstanding the little iron stove, the ink froze on the swing-
table in the cabin, and I found it more convenient to go ashore
stumbling over the arctic waste-land and shivering in glazed
tramcars in order to write my evening letter to my owners in a
gorgeous cafe in the centre of the town. It was an immense place,
lofty and gilt, upholstered in red plush, full of electric lights
and so thoroughly warmed that even the marble tables felt tepid to
the touch. The waiter who brought me my cup of coffee bore, by
comparison with my utter isolation, the dear aspect of an intimate
friend. There, alone in a noisy crowd, I would write slowly a
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: him?
SEGASTO.
No, sir, he must come to me.
MOUSE.
Hark you, master, how if he be not at home? What
shall I do then?
SEGASTO.
Why, then thou leavest word with some of his folks.
MOUSE.
Oh, master, if there be no body within, I will leave
word with his dog.
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