| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: force of cowardice and ill conduct;" and an admiral, "that, for
want of proper intelligence, he beat the enemy, to whom he
intended to betray the fleet." Three kings protested to me,
"that in their whole reigns they never did once prefer any person
of merit, unless by mistake, or treachery of some minister in
whom they confided; neither would they do it if they were to live
again:" and they showed, with great strength of reason, "that the
royal throne could not be supported without corruption, because
that positive, confident, restiff temper, which virtue infused
into a man, was a perpetual clog to public business."
I had the curiosity to inquire in a particular manner, by what
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: herself to be seen "doing" her own rooms, or she loses her pariostre,
--that precious SEEMING-TO-BE!
Madame Rabourdin was in full tide of preparation for her Friday
dinner, standing in the midst of provisions the cook had just fished
from the vast ocean of the markets, when Monsieur des Lupeaulx made
his way stealthily in. The general-secretary was certainly the last
man Madame Rabourdin expected to see, and so, when she heard his boots
creaking in the ante-chamber, she exclaimed, impatiently, "The hair-
dresser already!"--an exclamation as little agreeable to des Lupeaulx
as the sight of des Lupeaulx was agreeable to her. She immediately
escaped into her bedroom, where chaos reigned; a jumble of furniture
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: the door announced, "There's a ship's boat coming our way, sir,"
I saw him give a start--the first movement he had made for hours.
But he did not raise his bowed head.
"All right. Get the ladder over."
I hesitated. Should I whisper something to him? But what?
His immobility seemed to have been never disturbed.
What could I tell him he did not know already? . . . Finally
I went on deck.
II
The skipper of the Sephora had a thin red whisker all round his face,
and the sort of complexion that goes with hair of that color;
The Secret Sharer |
