| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: without convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs
of which may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances
which science has united separate.
For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita's presence
his body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single
glance this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where
meditation leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision
transports the artist, and sleep the souls of men,--each and all have
their own path to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own
individual sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all
veils are rent away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: Such waves as these, at the Hebrides, have displaced a mass
weighing 8,400 lb. They are they which, in the tempest of
December 23rd, 1864, after destroying the town of Yeddo, in Japan,
broke the same day on the shores of America. The intensity of
the tempest increased with the night. The barometer, as in 1860
at Reunion during a cyclone, fell seven-tenths at the close of day.
I saw a large vessel pass the horizon struggling painfully.
She was trying to lie to under half steam, to keep up above the waves.
It was probably one of the steamers of the line from New York
to Liverpool, or Havre. It soon disappeared in the gloom.
At ten o'clock in the evening the sky was on fire.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: flattering. He is so extremely attached to my daughter that he could not
exist longer without seeing her. Sir James is a young man of an amiable
disposition and excellent character; a little too much of the rattle,
perhaps, but a year or two will rectify THAT: and he is in other respects
so very eligible a match for Frederica, that I have always observed his
attachment with the greatest pleasure; and am persuaded that you and my
brother will give the alliance your hearty approbation. I have never
before mentioned the likelihood of its taking place to anyone, because I
thought that whilst Frederica continued at school it had better not be
known to exist; but now, as I am convinced that Frederica is too old ever
to submit to school confinement, and have, therefore, begun to consider her
Lady Susan |
