| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: it comes to my own turn to lay my weapons down, I shall do so with
thankfulness and fatigue; and whatever be my destiny afterward, I
shall be glad to lie down with my fathers in honour. It is human
at least, if not divine. And these deaths make me think of it with
an ever greater readiness. Strange that you should be beginning a
new life, when I, who am a little your junior, am thinking of the
end of mine. But I have had hard lines; I have been so long
waiting for death, I have unwrapped my thoughts from about life so
long, that I have not a filament left to hold by; I have done my
fiddling so long under Vesuvius, that I have almost forgotten to
play, and can only wait for the eruption, and think it long of
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: Mademoiselle de Temninck; with whom he fell deeply in love. At first,
Josephine de Temninck thought herself the object of a mere caprice,
and refused to listen to Monsieur Claes; but passion is contagious;
and to a poor girl who was lame and ill-made, the sense of inspiring
love in a young and handsome man carries with it such strong seduction
that she finally consented to allow him to woo her.
It would need a volume to paint the love of a young girl humbly
submissive to the verdict of a world that calls her plain, while she
feels within herself the irresistible charm which comes of sensibility
and true feeling. It involves fierce jealousy of happiness, freaks of
cruel vengeance against some fancied rival who wins a glance,--
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: who knows the way to the heart of a violin, are things that, in this
invariable sameness of the snows and frosty air, surprise you like an
adventure. It is droll, moreover, to compare the respect with which
the invalids attend a concert, and the ready contempt with which they
greet the dinner-time performers. Singing which they would hear with
real enthusiasm - possibly with tears - from a corner of a drawing-
room, is listened to with laughter when it is offered by an unknown
professional and no money has been taken at the door.
Of skating little need be said; in so snowy a climate the rinks must
be intelligently managed; their mismanagement will lead to many days
of vexation and some petty quarrelling, but when all goes well, it is
|
