| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: So, too, within the field of private industry, the person in
authority, be it the bailiff, be it the overseer,[11] provided he is
able to produce unflinching energy, intense and eager, for the work,
belongs to those who haste to overtake good things[12] and reap great
plenty. Should the master (he proceeded), being a man possessed of so
much power, Socrates, to injure the bad workman and reward the zealous
--should he suddenly appear, and should his appearance in the labour
field produce no visible effect upon his workpeople, I cannot say I
envy or admire him. But if the sight of him is followed by a stir of
movement, if there come upon[13] each labourer fresh spirit, with
mutual rivaly and keen ambition, drawing out the finest qualities of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: men; but what contributed more than aught else to give to the spectre
that rose before us the aspect of an artificial creation was the red
and white paint with which he glistened. The eyebrows shone in the
light with a lustre which disclosed a very well executed bit of
painting. Luckily for the eye, saddened by such a mass of ruins, his
corpse-like skull was concealed beneath a light wig, with innumerable
curls which indicated extraordinary pretensions to elegance. Indeed,
the feminine coquettishness of this fantastic apparition was
emphatically asserted by the gold ear-rings which hung at his ears, by
the rings containing stones of marvelous beauty which sparkled on his
fingers, like the brilliants in a river of gems around a woman's neck.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: his son. Edmund considered it every way, and saw nothing
but what was right. The thing was good in itself,
and could not be done at a better time; and he had no doubt
of it being highly agreeable to Fanny. This was enough
to determine Sir Thomas; and a decisive "then so it shall be"
closed that stage of the business; Sir Thomas retiring
from it with some feelings of satisfaction, and views
of good over and above what he had communicated to his son;
for his prime motive in sending her away had very little
to do with the propriety of her seeing her parents again,
and nothing at all with any idea of making her happy.
Mansfield Park |
