| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: and shot a glance at her out of the dark depths of almond-shaped eyes
with purpled lids, and those faint lines about them which tell of
pleasures as costly as painful fatigue. With those eyes upon her, she
said--'Your address?'
" 'What want of address!'
" 'Oh, pshaw!' she said, smiling. 'A bird on the bough?'
" 'Good-bye, madame, you are such a woman as I seek, but my fortune is
far from equaling my desire----'
"He bowed, and there and then left her. Two days later, by one of the
strange chances that can only happen in Paris, he had betaken himself
to a money-lending wardrobe dealer to sell such of his clothing as he
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: hardly had he made a quarter of a league in the sand when he heard the
panther bounding after him, crying with that saw-like cry more
dreadful even than the sound of her leaping.
"Ah!" he said, "then she's taken a fancy to me, she has never met
anyone before, and it is really quite flattering to have her first
love." That instant the man fell into one of those movable quicksands
so terrible to travelers and from which it is impossible to save
oneself. Feeling himself caught, he gave a shriek of alarm; the
panther seized him with her teeth by the collar, and, springing
vigorously backwards, drew him as if by magic out of the whirling
sand.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: long line of more or less clever public
performers in Europe and America.
CHAPTER TWO
WATTON'S SHIP-SWABBER ``FROM THE
INDIES.''--RICHARDSON, 1667--DE
HEITERKEIT, 1713.--ROBERT POWELL, 1718-
1780.--DUFOUR, 1783.--QUACKENSALBER, 1794.
The earliest mention I have found of a public
fire-eater in England is in the correspondence
of Sir Henry Watton, under date of
June 3rd, 1633. He speaks of an Englishman
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
