| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: playful and sportive, than speculative--but in general they are to be
looked upon by the learned as a detail of so many independent facts, all of
them turning round somehow or other upon the main hinges of his subject,
and added to his work as so many illustrations upon the doctrines of noses.
As we have leisure enough upon our hands--if you give me leave, madam, I'll
tell you the ninth tale of his tenth decad.
Slawkenbergii Fabella (As Hafen Slawkenbergius de Nasis is extremely
scarce, it may not be unacceptable to the learned reader to see the
specimen of a few pages of his original; I will make no reflection upon it,
but that his story-telling Latin is much more concise than his philosophic-
-and, I think, has more of Latinity in it.)
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: "the last time I met you two, you were on your honeymoon--on THIS
VERY TRAIN," and with that the fellow sat himself down,
uninvited, by Alfred's side and started on a long list of
compliments about "the fine little girl" who had in his opinion
done Alfred a great favour when she consented to tie herself to a
"dull, money-grubbing chap" like him.
"So," thought Alfred, "this is the way the world sees us." And
he began to frame inaudible but desperate defences of himself.
Again he told himself that he was right; but his friend's
thoughtless words had planted an uncomfortable doubt in his mind,
and when he left the train to drive to his hotel, he was thinking
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: "In fact," said one of the guards who had remained in the
chamber and had been kept awake by a toothache, brought on
by the dampness of the atmosphere, "my lord has had a very
restless night and two or three times, while dreaming, he
called for help."
"What is the matter with your highness?" asked La Ramee.
"'Tis your fault, you simpleton," answered the duke. "With
your idle nonsense yesterday about escaping, you worried me
so that I dreamed that I was trying to escape and broke my
neck in doing so."
La Ramee laughed.
Twenty Years After |
