| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: the responsibilities and duties and burdens and sorrows and joys -
all the domestic and social initiations and complications. They
must be immensely suggestive, immensely amusing," Paul anxiously
submitted.
"Amusing?"
"For a strong man - yes."
"They've given me subjects without number, if that's what you mean;
but they've taken away at the same time the power to use them.
I've touched a thousand things, but which one of them have I turned
into gold? The artist has to do only with that - he knows nothing
of any baser metal. I've led the life of the world, with my wife
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "Better open it and read it to me," I suggested. "If it is
important, that will save time."
There was a pause while Mr. Harton opened the telegram. Then he
read it slowly, judicially.
"`Watch for Nina Carrington. Home Monday. Signed F. L. W.'"
"Hum!" I said. "`Watch for Nina Carrington. Home Monday.' Very
well, Mr. Harton, I will tell her, but she is not in condition to
watch for any one."
"Well, Miss Innes, if you decide to--er--relinquish the lease,
let me know," the lawyer said.
"I shall not relinquish it," I replied, and I imagined his
The Circular Staircase |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: fragment of his verse. Have you ever smelt in the fields in the month
of May the perfume that communicates to all created beings the
intoxicating sense of a new creation; the sense that makes you trail
your hand in the water from a boat, and loosen your hair to the breeze
while your mind revives with the springtide greenery of the trees? A
little plant, a species of vernal grass, is a powerful element in this
veiled harmony; it cannot be worn with impunity; take into your hand
its shining blade, striped green and white like a silken robe, and
mysterious emotions will stir the rosebuds your modesty keeps hidden
in the depths of your heart. Round the neck of a porcelain vase
imagine a broad margin of the gray-white tufts peculiar to the sedum
The Lily of the Valley |
