| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: affection, has never heard this music, and has never perceived the
heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the air fragrant about her
when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on returning from their
walks together expressed to me the delight of a young girl in the
beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of budding larches and
pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long winters what can be
more natural than such pleasure? The companionship of this so-called
spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has it, my child?"
"The secrets of that spirit are not mine," said Minna. "Near it I know
all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no
longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: long. As many as twelve. But they worked in cliques
from the first. And they've slipped back. In my
young days speaking of the Council was like an ignorant
man speaking of God. We didn't think they could
do wrong. We didn't know of their women and all
that! Or else I've got wiser.
"Men are strange," said the old man. "Here are
you, young and ignorant, and me--sevendy years old,
and I might reasonably be forgetting--explaining it
all to you short and clear.
"Sevendy," he said, "sevendy, and I hear and see--
When the Sleeper Wakes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: such ransom as the Moslem exact from our people.''
``And are you not then as well protected in
England?'' said Rowena. ``My husband has favour
with the King---the King himself is just and
generous.''
``Lady,'' said Rebecca, ``I doubt it not---but the
people of England are a fierce race, quarrelling
ever with their neighbours or among themselves,
and ready to plunge the sword into the bowels of
each other. Such is no safe abode for the children
of my people. Ephraim is an heartless dove---Issachar
Ivanhoe |
