| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: that he wrote it down before he went to bed.
I have had the good fortune to meet with it amongst my father's papers,
with here and there an insertion of his own, betwixt two crooks, thus (. .
.), and is endorsed,
My Brother Toby's Justification of His Own Principles and Conduct in
Wishing to Continue the War.
I may safely say, I have read over this apologetical oration of my uncle
Toby's a hundred times, and think it so fine a model of defence,--and shews
so sweet a temperament of gallantry and good principles in him, that I give
it the world, word for word (interlineations and all), as I find it.
Chapter 3.LXXV.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: by all that has happened in this terrible night. I find it
difficult even to write; my hands shake so that they are not under
control, and I am trembling all over with memory of the horrors we
saw enacted before our eyes. I am grieved beyond measure that I
should be, however remotely, a cause of this horror coming on you.
Forgive me if you can, and do not think too hardly of me. This I
ask with confidence, for since we shared together the danger--the
very pangs--of death, I feel that we should be to one another
something more than mere friends, that I may lean on you and trust
you, assured that your sympathy and pity are for me. You really
must let me thank you for the friendliness, the help, the
Lair of the White Worm |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: and laid it on des Lupeaulx's desk, pointing to a marked passage. Then
he went to the door and slipped the bolt, fearing interruption. While
he was thus employed, the secretary-general read the opening sentence
of the article, which was as follows:
"Monsieur des Lupeaulx. A government degrades itself by openly
employing such a man, whose real vocation is for police diplomacy.
He is fitted to deal with the political filibusters of other
cabinets, and it would be a pity therefore to employ him on our
internal detective police. He is above a common spy, for he is
able to understand a plan; he could skilfully carry through a dark
piece of work and cover his retreat safely."
|
