| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: which is just, merciful, magnanimous, and even, at times, in favour
of that which is pure; which proves that in Voltaire, as in most
men, there was a double self--the one sickened to cynicism by the
iniquity and folly which he saw around him--the other, hungering
after a nobler life, and possibly exciting that hunger in one and
another, here and there, who admired him for other reasons than the
educated mob, which cried after him "Vive la Pucelle."
Rousseau, too. Easy it is to feel disgust, contempt, for the
"Confessions" and the "Nouvelle Heloise"--for much, too much, in the
man's own life and character. One would think the worse of the
young Englishman who did not so feel, and express his feelings
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: beyond the ruined hovel, beyond the symbolic row of stakes.
All this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine,
and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered
in a still and dazzling splendour, with a murky and overshadowed
bend above and below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore.
The bushes did not rustle.
"Suddenly round the corner of the house a group of men appeared, as though
they had come up from the ground. They waded waist-deep in the grass,
in a compact body, bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst.
Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose
shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight
Heart of Darkness |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: inexpressible charm. The marquis felt the storm of love, of rage, of
madness, rising in his heart; he wrung the count's hand violently, and
left the room.
"Is he gone?" said Mademoiselle de Verneuil, returning to her place.
The count gave her a glance and passed into the next room, from which
he presently returned accompanied by the Gars.
"He is mine!" she thought, observing his face in the mirror.
She received the young leader with a displeased air and said nothing,
but she smiled as she turned away from him; he was so superior to all
about him that she was proud of being able to rule him; and obeying an
instinct which sways all women more or less, she resolved to let him
The Chouans |
