| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: melody, it elucidated it, supported it, guided it,--just as the feeble
and quavering voice of an accomplished reader, such as Andrieux, for
instance, can expand the meaning of some great scene by Corneille or
Racine by lending personal and poetical feeling.
This really angelic strain showed what treasures lay hidden in that
stupendous opera, which, however, would never find comprehension so
long as the musician persisted in trying to explain it in his present
demented state. His wife and the Count were equally divided between
the music and their surprise at this hundred-voiced instrument, inside
which a stranger might have fancied an invisible chorus of girls were
hidden, so closely did some of the tones resemble the human voice; and
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: precautions that their authorship should not be satisfactorily
proved, no matter how sagely suspected. Moreover, in his
conversation he was judicious enough to keep the weapon of his
satire in reserve; sheathing its fatal keenness in a bewitching
softness of civility until occasion required its use; when forth
it flashed all the brighter for its covering, all the sharper for
its rest. And satire being absent from his speech, humour ever
waited on his words; and never was he more extravagantly gay than
when assisting at the pleasant suppers given by the merry monarch
to his choicest friends.
Here, whilst drinking deep of ruddy wine from goblets of old
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: gets beyond, he rather exchanges qualities than gets them. I must
not presume to say how far this has affected the French in the
subject we are speaking of; - but, should it ever be the case of
the English, in the progress of their refinements, to arrive at the
same polish which distinguishes the French, if we did not lose the
POLITESSE DU COEUR, which inclines men more to humane actions than
courteous ones, - we should at least lose that distinct variety and
originality of character, which distinguishes them, not only from
each other, but from all the world besides.
I had a few of King William's shillings, as smooth as glass, in my
pocket; and foreseeing they would be of use in the illustration of
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