| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: thought to obtain Scotland, when, after the death of Mary, it had
passed under the undisputed control of the Protestant noblemen.
He dreamed of securing for his family the crown of France, even
after Henry, with free consent of the Pope, had made his
triumphal entry into Paris. He asserted complete and entire
sovereignty over the Netherlands, even after Prince Maurice had
won back from him the last square foot of Dutch territory. Such
obstinacy as this can only be called fatuity. If Philip had lived
in Pagan times, he would doubtless, like Caligula, have demanded
recognition of his own divinity.
The miserable condition of the Spanish people under this terrible
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: than of Hilarion's metaphor--and our preconceptions having (you know) as
great a power over the sounds of words as the shapes of things, he had
imagined, that my father, who was not very ceremonious in his choice of
words, had enquired after the part by its proper name: so notwithstanding
my mother, doctor Slop, and Mr. Yorick, were sitting in the parlour, he
thought it rather civil to conform to the term my father had made use of
than not. When a man is hemm'd in by two indecorums, and must commit one
of 'em--I always observe--let him chuse which he will, the world will blame
him--so I should not be astonished if it blames my uncle Toby.
My A..e, quoth my uncle Toby, is much better--brother Shandy--My father had
formed great expectations from his Asse in this onset; and would have
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: full of that celestial life of which I dreamed--"
"Marie, what has happened?"
"I am betrayed, deceived, insulted, fooled! I will kill him, I will
tear him bit by bit! Yes, there was always in his manner a contempt he
could not hide and which I would not see. Oh! I shall die of this!
Fool that I am," she went on laughing, "he is coming; I have one night
in which to teach him that, married or not, the man who has possessed
me cannot abandon me. I will measure my vengeance by his offence; he
shall die with despair in his soul. I did believe he had a soul of
honor, but no! it is that of a lackey. Ah, he has cleverly deceived
me, for even now it seems impossible that the man who abandoned me to
The Chouans |
