| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: sweepingly, so infinitely more important than the other parts of
life, that I conceive men rather triflers who become immersed in
the latter; and I will always think the man who keeps his lip
stiff, and makes 'a happy fireside clime,' and carries a pleasant
face about to friends and neighbours, infinitely greater (in the
abstract) than an atrabilious Shakespeare or a backbiting Kant or
Darwin. No offence to any of these gentlemen, two of whom probably
(one for certain) came up to my standard.
And now enough said; it were hard if a poor man could not criticise
another without having so much ink shed against him. But I shall
still regret you should have written on an hypothesis you knew to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: through the streets (for she set me down at Florine's), she continued
the quarrel with a series of most mortifying remarks.
" 'What is this about?' I inquired.
" 'Oh, my dear fellow, she blames me for allowing you to run out for a
cab, and thereupon proceeds to wish for a carriage.'
" 'As a dancer,' said she, 'I have never been accustomed to use my
feet except on the boards. If you have any spirit, you will turn out
four more plays or so in a year; you will make up your mind that
succeed they must, when you think of the end in view, and that your
wife will not walk in the mud. It is a shame that I should have to ask
for it. You ought to have guessed my continual discomfort during the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: "He was doubtless the first lover and accomplice of the fair
lady. A worthy man, who had pretended to be a curate for the
purpose of getting his mistress married, and securing her a
position. He has been hanged and quartered, I hope."
"My God, my God!" cried D'Artagnan, quite stunned by the relation
of this horrible adventure.
"Taste some of this ham, D'Artagnan; it is exquisite," said
Athos, cutting a slice, which he placed on the young man's plate.
"What a pity it is there were only four like this in the cellar.
I could have drunk fifty bottles more."
D'Artagnan could no longer endure this conversation, which had
The Three Musketeers |
