| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: consider the spectacle of that which went on within her,--the progress
of her thought, the variety of the images in her mind, and the scope
of feelings warmed and nurtured in a life so pure.
Those who looked up from their lower level as they passed along the
rue de la Cite might have seen, on all fine days, the daughter of the
Sauviats sitting at her open window, sewing, embroidering, or pricking
the needle through the canvas of her worsted-work, with a look that
was often dreamy. Her head was vividly defined among the flowers which
poetized the brown and crumbling sills of her casement windows with
their leaded panes. Sometimes the reflection of the red damask window-
curtains added to the effect of that head, already so highly colored;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: board merchant vessels was already well on the decline.
The difference between the sea-life then and now can be no better
epitomised than in Dana's description of the dress of the sailor
of his day:
"The trousers tight around the hips, and thence hanging long and
loose around the feet, a superabundance of checked shirt, a low-
crowned, well-varnished black hat, worn on the back of the head,
with half a fathom of black ribbon hanging over the left eye, and
a peculiar tie to the black silk neckerchief."
Though Dana sailed from Boston only three-quarters of a century
ago, much that is at present obsolete was then in full sway. For
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: sad, too. And it touched her.
"I shall not tell my brother of your--your rudeness to me," she
began. It was impossible for her to keep the chill out of her
voice, to speak with other than the pride and aloofness of her
class. Nevertheless, despite her loathing, when she had spoken
so far it seemed that kindness and pity followed involuntarily.
"I choose to overlook what you did because you were not wholly
accountable, and because there must be no trouble between Alfred
and you. May I rely on you to keep silence and to seal the lips
of that priest? And you know there was a man killed or injured
there last night. I want to forget that dreadful thing. I don't
The Light of Western Stars |
