| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: it merely attends, like an ill-humoured courtier, is itself
artificial in exactly the same sense and to the same degree.
I suppose what is meant by that objection is that jealousy has
not always been a character of man; formed no part of that
very modest kit of sentiments with which he is supposed to
have begun the world: but waited to make its appearance in
better days and among richer natures. And this is equally
true of love, and friendship, and love of country, and delight
in what they call the beauties of nature, and most other
things worth having. Love, in particular, will not endure any
historical scrutiny: to all who have fallen across it, it is
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: the eyes of the man, in an absurd fashion for such a stately
creature as she. But the man himself acted like a great happy
overgrown school-boy.
"Hullo, Eudora," he said again.
"Hullo," said she, falteringly.
It was inconceivable that they should meet in such wise after the
years of separation and longing which they had both undergone;
but each took refuge, as it were, in a long-past youth, even
childhood, from the fierce tension of age. When they were both
children they had been accustomed to pass each other on the
village street with exactly such salutation, and now both
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: hold the other four; he would have less territory and fewer
subjects, but the like independence and an equal royalty. Now
Mataafa, even if all debatable points were decided against him, is
still Tuiatua, and as such, on this hypothesis, a sovereign prince.
In the second place, the draughtsmen of the Act, waxing exceeding
bold, employed the word "election," and implicitly justified all
precedented steps towards the kingship according with the "customs
of Samoa." I am not asking what was intended by the gentlemen who
sat and debated very benignly and, on the whole, wisely in Berlin;
I am asking what will be understood by a Samoan studying their
literary work, the Berlin Act; I am asking what is the result of
|
