| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: business with me? Only, sir, replies he, order the girl to bring
me a better light, for this is but a very dim one. Sir, says I,
my name is Partridge: Oh! the Doctor's brother, belike, cries he;
the stair-case, I believe, and these two apartments hung in close
mourning, will be sufficient, and only a strip of bays round the
other rooms. The Doctor must needs die rich, he had great
dealings in his way for many years; if he had no family coat, you
had as good use the escutcheons of the company, they are as
showish, and will look as magnificent as if he was descended from
the blood royal. With that I assumed a great air of authority,
and demanded who employ'd him, or how he came there? Why, I was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: "Holy Virgin of Good Help, who art at Antwerp, I promise thee a
thousand pounds of wax and a statue, if thou wilt rescue me from
this!" cried the burgher, kneeling upon his bags of gold.
"The Virgin is no more at Antwerp than she is here," was the doctor's
comment on this appeal.
"She is in heaven," said a voice that seemed to come from the sea.
"Who said that?"
"'Tis the devil!" exclaimed the servant. "He is scoffing at the Virgin
of Antwerp."
"Let us have no more of your Holy Virgin at present," the skipper
cried to the passengers. "Put your hands to the scoops and bail the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: their left, and Havre on their right. The sea glittered brightly in
the sun and was as smooth as a mirror, and so calm that they could
scarcely distinguish its murmur; sparrows chirped joyfully and the
immense canopy of heaven spread over it all. Madame Aubain brought out
her sewing, and Virginia amused herself by braiding reeds; Felicite
wove lavender blossoms, while Paul was bored and wished to go home.
Sometimes they crossed the Toucques in a boat, and started to hunt for
sea-shells. The outgoing tide exposed star-fish and sea-urchins, and
the children tried to catch the flakes of foam which the wind blew
away. The sleepy waves lapping the sand unfurled themselves along the
shore that extended as far as the eye could see, but where land began,
A Simple Soul |
