| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: throughout the talk into which we now fell as we slowly walked up and
down High Walk, she never took the lead; she left that to the "downright"
tongue--but I noticed, however, that she chose her moments to follow the
lead very aptly. I also perceived plainly that what we were really going
to discuss was not at all the European principle of marriage-making, but
just simply young John and his Hortense; they were the true kernel of the
nut with whose concealing shell Mrs. Gregory was presenting me, and in
proposing an exchange of thoughts she would get back only more thoughts
upon the same subject. It was pretty evident how much Kings Port was
buzzing over all this! They fondly believed they did not like it; but
what would they have done without it? What, indeed, were they going to do
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: speciously strong and beautiful effects - that disinterested love
of dulness which has set so many Peter Bells to paint the river-
side primrose. It was then chosen for its proximity to Paris. And
for the same cause, and by the force of tradition, the painter of
to-day continues to inhabit and to paint it. There is in France
scenery incomparable for romance and harmony. Provence, and the
valley of the Rhone from Vienne to Tarascon, are one succession of
masterpieces waiting for the brush. The beauty is not merely
beauty; it tells, besides, a tale to the imagination, and surprises
while it charms. Here you shall see castellated towns that would
befit the scenery of dreamland; streets that glow with colour like
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: A dog, for all I know, is what he needs
As much as anything right here to-day,
To counsel him about his disillusions,
Old aches, and parturitions of what's coming, --
A dog of orders, an emeritus,
To wag his tail at him when he comes home,
And then to put his paws up on his knees
And say, "For God's sake, what's it all about?"
I don't know whether he needs a dog or not --
Or what he needs. I tell him he needs Greek;
I'll talk of rules and Aristotle with him,
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