| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: the office, when not busy, I wrote more poetry, and began also to write
prose, which I found at the outset less easy. When my first writings were
accepted (they were four sets of verses upon the Summer Resort) I felt
that I could soon address Ethel; for I had made ten dollars outside my
salary. Had she not been in Europe that July, I believe that I should
have spoken to her at once. But I sent her the paper; and I have the
letter that she wrote in reply."
"I"--began Ethel. But she stopped.
"Yes, I know now that you kept the verses," said Richard. "My next
manuscript, however, was rejected. Indeed, I went on offering my literary
productions nearly every week until the following January before a second
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: forthwith. Therefore gather together your effects, and waste not a
moment, lest worse befall you. Also, of all that a certain person has
contrived to do on your behalf I am aware; wherefore let me tell you,
as between ourselves, that should the conspiracy come to light,
nothing on earth can save him, and in his fall he will involve others
rather then be left unaccompanied in the lurch, and not see the guilt
shared. How is it that when I left you recently you were in a better
frame of mind than you are now? I beg of you not to trifle with the
matter. Ah me! what boots that wealth for which men dispute and cut
one another's throats? Do they think that it is possible to prosper in
this world without thinking of the world to come? Believe me when I
Dead Souls |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: baron. This man--this devil, rather--is called Gratien, Henri, Victor,
Jean-Joseph Bourignard. The Sieur Gratien Bourignard is a former ship-
builder, once very rich, and, above all, one of the handsomest men of
his day in Paris,--a Lovelace, capable of seducing Grandison. My
information stops short there. He has been a simple workman; and the
Companions of the Order of the Devorants did, at one time, elect him
as their chief, under the title of Ferragus XXIII. The police ought to
know that, if the police were instituted to know anything. The man has
moved from the rue des Vieux-Augustins, and now roosts rue Joquelet,
where Madame Jules Desmarets goes frequently to see him; sometimes her
husband, on his way to the Bourse, drives her as far as the rue
Ferragus |
