| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: There were other advance-advertisements. One of them
appeared just before Caesar Augustus was born, and was most
poetic and touching and romantic in its feelings and aspects.
It was a dream. It was dreamed by Caesar Augustus's mother,
and interpreted at the usual rates:
Atia, before her delivery, dreamed that her bowels stretched
to the stars and expanded through the whole circuit of heaven
and earth.--SUETONIUS, p. 139.
That was in the augur's line, and furnished him no
difficulties, but it would have taken Rawlinson and Champollion
fourteen years to make sure of what it meant, because they would
What is Man? |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: effort was made to get her astern, an anchor taken out, a rope
brought to a winch I had for the cable, and the engines backed; but
all in vain. A small Turkish Government steamer, which is to be
our consort, came to our assistance, but of course very slowly, and
much time was occupied before we could get a hawser to her. I
could do no good after having made a chart of the soundings round
the ship, and went at last on to the bridge to sketch the scene.
But at that moment the strain from the winch and a jerk from the
Turkish steamer got off the boat, after we had been some hours
aground. The carpenter reported that she had made only two inches
of water in one compartment; the cable was still uninjured astern,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: melancholy insight of disappointed love, I read hearts too clearly
to accept your proffered friendship. It is only instinct. I
forgive the boyish ruse, for which you are not responsible as yet.
In the name of this passing fancy of yours, for the sake of your
career and my own peace of mind, I bid you stay in your own
country; you must not spoil a fair and honorable life for an
illusion which, by its very nature, cannot last. At a later day,
when you have accomplished your real destiny, in the fully
developed manhood that awaits you, you will appreciate this answer
of mine, though to-day it may be that you blame its hardness. You
will turn with pleasure to an old woman whose friendship will
|
