| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: hypocrisy, uselessness are the ruling laws of human society. A new
book of Ecclesiastes, crying, "Vanity of vanity, all is vanity;" the
"conclusion of the whole matter" being left out, and the new
Ecclesiastes rendered thereby diabolic, instead of like that old
one, divine. For, instead of "Fear God and keep his commandments,
for that is the whole duty of main," Le Sage sends forth the new
conclusion, "Take care of thyself, and feed on thy neighbours, for
that is the whole duty of man." And very faithfully was his advice
(easy enough to obey at all times) obeyed for nearly a century after
"Gil Blas" appeared.
About the same time there appeared, by a remarkable coincidence,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: in their young champion. Already James had discovered that
Americans are eager for hero worship. He meant to be the hero of
his state, the favorite son it would delight to honor. This was
what he loved: the cheers for the victor, not the clash of the
battle.
"Good morning, Farnum. What are the prospects?" It was Clinton
Rogers, of the big shipbuilding firm Harvey & Rogers, that stopped
him now.
"Still anybody's fight, Mr. Rogers." The young lawyer's voice fell
a note to take on a frankly confidential tone, an accent of
friendliness that missed the fatal buttonholing familiarity of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: and shoulders above the bank.
"You Abdulla?" said Almayer, doubtfully.
A grave voice answered--
"Tuan Almayer is speaking to a friend. There is no Arab here."
Almayer's heart gave a great leap.
"Dain!" he exclaimed. "At last! at last! I have been waiting
for you every day and every night. I had nearly given you up."
"Nothing could have stopped me from coming back here," said the
other, almost violently. "Not even death," he whispered to
himself.
"This is a friend's talk, and is very good," said Almayer,
Almayer's Folly |
