| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: endeavor to establish its principles. .And because I observed, besides,
that an inquiry of this kind was of all others of the greatest moment, and
one in which precipitancy and anticipation in judgment were most to be
dreaded, I thought that I ought not to approach it till I had reached a
more mature age (being at that time but twenty-three), and had first of
all employed much of my time in preparation for the work, as well by
eradicating from my mind all the erroneous opinions I had up to that
moment accepted, as by amassing variety of experience to afford materials
for my reasonings, and by continually exercising myself in my chosen
method with a view to increased skill in its application.
PART III
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: ceased speaking arose a chorus of varied snores from the corner
where the body-guard had resumed their interrupted slumbers, but
the distant rumble of thunder filling then Nina's heart with
apprehension for the safety of her lover passed unheeded by those
three men intent each on their own purposes, for life or death.
After a short silence, Babalatchi, discarding now the flowers of
polite eloquence, spoke again, but in short and hurried sentences
and in a low voice. They had been very uneasy. Why did Dain
remain so long absent? The men dwelling on the lower reaches of
the river heard the reports of big guns and saw a fire-ship of
the Dutch amongst the islands of the estuary. So they were
Almayer's Folly |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: now about to die out in the person of a solitary exile.
Farewell.
VII
LOUISE DE CHAULIEU TO RENEE DE MAUCOMBE
WHAT! To be married so soon. But this is unheard of. At the end of a
month you become engaged to a man who is a stranger to you, and about
whom you know nothing. The man may be deaf--there are so many kinds of
deafness!--he may be sickly, tiresome, insufferable!
Don't you see, Renee, what they want with you? You are needful for
carrying on the glorious stock of the l'Estorades, that is all. You
will be buried in the provinces. Are these the promises we made each
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