| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: found myself in another world; he would have naught of me. 'It is
quite useless for YOU to come to me, Mr. Stevenson. There may be
doubtful cases, there is no doubt about yours. You have simply NOT
attended my class.' The document was necessary to me for family
considerations; and presently I stooped to such pleadings and rose
to such adjurations, as made my ears burn to remember. He was
quite unmoved; he had no pity for me. - 'You are no fool,' said he,
'and you chose your course.' I showed him that he had misconceived
his duty, that certificates were things of form, attendance a
matter of taste. Two things, he replied, had been required for
graduation, a certain competency proved in the final trials and a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: require of him his nights. After his labor, his pleasure. The comedian
plays till midnight, studies in the morning, rehearses at noon; the
sculptor is bent before his statue; the journalist is a marching
thought, like the soldier when at war; the painter who is the fashion
is crushed with work, the painter with no occupation, if he feels
himself to be a man of genius, gnaws his entrails. Competition,
rivalry, calumny assail talent. Some, in desperation, plunge into the
abyss of vice, others die young and unknown because they have
discounted their future too soon. Few of these figures, originally
sublime, remain beautiful. On the other hand, the flagrant beauty of
their heads is not understood. An artist's face is always exorbitant,
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: CHAPTER X
NOMBE
The Swazis, shivering, for all these people hate cold, and
shaking themselves like a dog when he comes to shore, gathered
round, examining me.
"Why!" said one of them, an elderly man who seemed to be their
leader, "this is none other than Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night,
the old friend of all us black people. Surely the spirits of our
fathers have been with us who might have risked our lives to save
a Boer or a half-breed." (The Swazis, I may explain, did not like
the Boers for reasons they considered sound.)
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