| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: of historical events, mark the vocation of the writer and the
painter. The arabesque, properly speaking, and even in literature,
is the first fancy of the artist; he first plays with his material
as a child plays with a kaleidoscope; and he is already in a second
stage when he begins to use his pretty counters for the end of
representation. In that, he must pause long and toil faithfully;
that is his apprenticeship; and it is only the few who will really
grow beyond it, and go forward, fully equipped, to do the business
of real art - to give life to abstractions and significance and
charm to facts. In the meanwhile, let him dwell much among his
fellow-craftsmen. They alone can take a serious interest in the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: as the door was always locked at night by Mr. Otis, and the windows
kept closely barred. The chameleon-like colour, also, of the stain
excited a good deal of comment. Some mornings it was a dull
(almost Indian) red, then it would be vermilion, then a rich
purple, and once when they came down for family prayers, according
to the simple rites of the Free American Reformed Episcopalian
Church, they found it a bright emerald-green. These kaleidoscopic
changes naturally amused the party very much, and bets on the
subject were freely made every evening. The only person who did
not enter into the joke was little Virginia, who, for some
unexplained reason, was always a good deal distressed at the sight
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: had been confirmed was quite ashamed; he looked at his wooden shoes, pulled at
the short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he could not walk
so fast; besides, he thought that the bell must be looked for to the right;
for that was the place where all sorts of beautiful things were to be found.
"But there we shall not meet," said the King's Son, nodding at the same time
to the poor boy, who went into the darkest, thickest part of the wood, where
thorns tore his humble dress, and scratched his face and hands and feet till
they bled. The King's Son got some scratches too; but the sun shone on his
path, and it is him that we will follow, for he was an excellent and resolute
youth.
"I must and will find the bell," said he, "even if I am obliged to go to the
Fairy Tales |
