| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: himself, "or I left it lying on my chair. Or perhaps I have it
about me--I am so absent-minded!" He searched himself with
hurried movements, but did not find the ill-starred purse. His
memory cruelly retraced the fatal truth, minute by minute. He
distinctly saw the purse lying on the green cloth; but then,
doubtful no longer, he excused Adelaide, telling himself that
persons in misfortune should not be so hastily condemned. There
was, of course, some secret behind this apparently degrading
action. He would not admit that that proud and noble face was a
lie.
At the same time the wretched rooms rose before him, denuded of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: locks and beard, an eye which looks as though it feared neither man
nor fiend--and it has had good reason to fear both--and features
which would be exceeding handsome, but for the defiant snub-nose.
That is Andreas Vesalius, of Brussels, dreaded and hated by the
doctors of the old school--suspect, moreover, it would seem to
inquisitors and theologians, possibly to Alva himself; for he has
dared to dissect human bodies; he has insulted the mediaevalists at
Paris, Padua, Bologna, Pisa, Venice, in open theatre; he has turned
the heads of all the young surgeons in Italy and France; he has
written a great book, with prints in it, designed, some say, by
Titian--they were actually done by another Netherlander, John of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Pierst through the heart with your stearne cruelty:
Yet you the murderer lookes as bright as cleare,
As yonder Venus in her glimmering spheare
Her. What's this to my Lysander? where is he?
Ah good Demetrius, wilt thou giue him me?
Dem. I'de rather giue his carkasse to my hounds
Her. Out dog, out cur, thou driu'st me past the bounds
Of maidens patience. Hast thou slaine him then?
Henceforth be neuer numbred among men.
Oh, once tell true, euen for my sake,
Durst thou a lookt vpon him, being awake?
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
